\ 



BATTLING FOR 
THE RIGHT 



THE LIFE-STORY OF 
THEODORE ROOSEVEL T 

Including 

His Early Life Struggles and Victorious Public Career; 
His Principles and Policies; 

THE STORY OF HIS AFRICAN TRIP; 

His Memorable Journey Through 

Europe ; 

And His Leadership in 

THE BATTLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 



By CHARLES MORRIS 

Author of " Our Presidents," "The Life of Winiam McKinley, 
"History of the United States," etc. 



Profusely Illustrated 



^ 73- '/ 



Copyright, 1910, hy 
W. E. Scuri. 



V- 




TABLE OF CONTENTS 

BOOK ONE 
Early Life Battles and Victorious Public Career 

"No man has lived more fully than he the life of his time" 

CHAPTER I. PAGE 

Remarkable Characteristics of Theodore Roosevelt 19 

CHAPTER H. y 
Battles for Health in Boyhood and Early Life 25 

CHAPTER HL 
Exposing Graft in New York State 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
Among the Cowboys and on the Hunting Field 37 

CHAPTER V. 
Fighting the Spoils Hunters and Rascals 44 

CHAPTER VI. 
Crushing Cuba's Oppressors — Roosevelt as Naval Secre- 
tary AND Rough Rider 51 

CPIAPTER VII. 
Governor and Vice-President 57 

(xi) 



xii TABLE OF CONTENTSj 

CHAPTER VIII. ■ 
A Vigorous Champion in the Presidential Chair 63 

CHAPTER IX. 
Fearless Champion of the Right and Maker of 'Teace 

WITH Honor" 69 



BOOK TWO 
The Roosevelt Policies 

Battles that Theodore Roosevelt Has Waged and the Principles he Stands For 

CHAPTER X. 
Good Citizenship and a Square Deal for all Men yy 

CHAPTER XL 
Controlling the Corporations and Advancing the Reign 

OF Law Over that of Force and Fraud 84 

CHAPTER Xn. 
Relations of Capital and Labor and Arbitration of Labor 

Disputes 91 

CHAPTER XHL 
The Larger Good as Contrasted with the Demands of 

Expediency 97 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Conservation of Natural Resources and Development 

of Public Works 103 



CCI.A278434 

i 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER XA\ 

National Defence and the Need of a Strong Army and 

Navy^,^,^ III 

CHAPTER XVL / 
The Monroe Doctrine and the Panama Canal 117 

,/ 
CHAPTER XVn. V 

Advocate of International Arbitration and World Peace 124 

CHAPTER XVni. 
-TfeNTER. Rancher, and Lover of Nature and Outdoor Life. 131 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Roosevelt as Scholar, Author and Orator 13S 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Most Skilful Politician of the Century 145 



BOOK THREE 
The African Trip and Big Game 

Conflicts with Wild Beasts on the Roosevelt-Smithsonian Hunting Expedition 

CHAPTER XXI. 
From New York to Mombasa icy 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The East African Railroad 168 



xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
In the Wilds of British East Africa 184 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Hunting the Giant Animals of the Dark Continent .... 199 

CHAPTER XXV. 
In the Sotik Wilderness and on Lake Naivasha 206 

CPIAPTER XXVI. 
On the Victoria Nyanza 216 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Beautiful Uganda and the Nile 225 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Successful End of the African Hunt 237 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
The Great Game Animals of Africa 245 

CHAPTER XXX. 
The Giraffe. Buffalo and Zebra 254 

CHAPTER XXXL 
Graceful African Antelopes 260 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
The Lion and Other Beasts of Prey 267 



• 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xv 

BOOK FOUR 
The New World's Champion in the Old World 

His Receptions by Foreign Sovereigns and Peoples and 
Return to Activity in America 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Down the Nile to Khartum ^77 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
Roosevelt in the Valley of the Nile 285 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Our Ex-President in the Land of the Caesars 295. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
A Week in the Austrian Empire 3^7 

CHAPTER XXXVII 
Our ''Most Distinguished Citizen'' Visits the Republic of 

France 3i3 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Roosevelt in Holland, the Home of His Ancestors 320 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Roosevelt Welcomed by the Scandinavians ....._. 327 

CHAPTER XL. 
Emperor William of Germany Greets Ex-President Roose- 
velt ^2>^ 



xvi TABLE OF CONTEXTS 

CHAPTER XLI. 
England, in Mourning, Receives Its Guest of Honor 347 

The Text of Roosevelt's Lectures in European Centers of 

Learning 353 

CHAPTER XLH. 
Return to America and Enthusiastic Welcome 383 



BOOK FIVE 
The Battle for Human Rights 

The Principle of the Superiority of Human Rights when they Conflict with 
Property Rights and its Importance to Every Man and Woman 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
Fighting for the Rights of Man — The Contest Between 
Rising Humanity and the Encroachment of Special 
Privilege 393 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
The Doctrine of New Nationalism 402 

CHAPTER XLV. 
The Conservation of Natural Resources 414 




Copmhllil bil Liiih.truod J: Indeniood . A. 1. 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE HUNTER 



BOOK ONE 



EARLY LIFE BATTLES AND 

VICTORIOUS PUBLIC 

CAREER 



(17) 



CHAPTER I 

Remarkable Characteristics of Theodore Roosevelt 

IN the opening years of the nineteenth century a man of remarkable 
character and abihty stood in the center of tlie historic stage, with 

the world's eyes fixed upon him. This was Napoleon Bonaparte, 
the most famous of soldiers. In the opening years of the twentieth 
century a man equally remarkable in character and ability stood in like 
manner before the world, with all eyes upon him. This was Theodore 
Roosevelt, the most famous advocate of peace and progress. 

The careers of these men were strikingly unlike, their fame strik- 
ingly similar. It was the blare of trumpets and roll of drums, the 
charge of cavalry and the cannon's roar, "all the pomp and circum- 
stance of glorious war," to which Napoleon owed his fame. There 
was none of this in Roosevelt's career. Aside from his few days of 
fighting in Cuba, with his picturesque charge up San Juan Hill, his 
life has been one of a struggle against graft and dishonesty ; a battle 
with politicians and law-making bodies for reform ; a demand of equal 
rights for all men, a square deal for high and low, for rich and 
poor alike. 

Others before Theodore Roosevelt have fought the same fight 
and yet not been heard of beyond the boundaries of their countries. 
What is it in this man that has set the vvorld agape, put his name into 
every mouth, opened every ear to hear his least utterance, made his 
proposed quiet journey through Europe a phenomenal ovation, in 
which multitudes crowd to see him and cheer him as he passes, and 
the greatest monarchs are eager to greet him as a favored visitor, a 
man their equal in rank? Do the world's people hail him as their 
friend, the man who stands for the masses against the classes? Do 
the kings hail him as a great ruler of men, a modern Caesar or Charle- 
magne? Whatever the cause, this simple American citizen, without 
rank or power, stands in the limelight of the world's applause, the 
Halley comet of the political skies. 

(19) 



ao CHARACTERISTICS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

At home he has won the acclaim of all parties, and we find 
Henry Watterson, one of the leaders of his political opponents, 
offering this involuntary tribute to his greatness and fame: "The 
time has come for the people of the United States to consider Theo- 
dore Roosevelt as they have never considered him before, to take 
him more seriously than they have ever taken him, to realize that 
he is altogether the most startling figure who has appeared in the 
world since Napoleon Bonaparte, a circumstance not without signi- 
ficance and portent. ... If the government of the United 
States under our written constitution of checks and balances be a 
failure, as many think, and if there be need for its executive head of a 
strong man having the courage to take all the bulls of corruption by 
the horns and, regardless of obsolete legal restraints, to shake the 
life out of them, then, indeed, Theodore Roosevelt would seem one 
fitted by temperament, education and training for the work." 

Mr. Watterson does not think that any such man is wanted, 
and that " the blaze of light which casts an aureole about our wander- 
ing Ulysses is rather a glare of threat than a beacon light of hope. " 
But however that be, and many may differ from him in opinion, his 
tribute to Roosevelt's character and standing is highly significant, 
and we cannot but ask. What is there in the man or his career that has, 
lifted him to such a high repute ? Only a man of inborn genius, of un- 
surpassed capacity for affairs, of extraordinary insight, and of won- 
derful power for "doing things," could have risen in a few years of 
rule to such a height. But it is not this alone that the people see and 
admire in him. It is his outspoken honesty of purpose, his hatred of 
fraud, his daring in taking "the bulls of corruption by the horns," 
his bold defiance of the army of corrupt finance intrenched behind 
the ramparts of Wall Street, his resistance to the cohorts of party 
politics, his stern integrity and individualism, his attitude of deter- 
mined and forceful rebellion against the creeping hordes of expe- 
diency, his advocacy of good citizenship and a square deal, that have 
made him the favorite of the great multitude of his fellow citizens and 
won him the admiration of the nations abroad. As for the monarchs, 
he appeals to them as a man for them to study, a man whose career 
is a lesson it will pay them to learn. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 21 

Roosevelt has faults, many of them, but he has virtues Vv'hich 
throw his faults into the shade. His hasty disposition, his impulsive- 
ness, have often led him into wrong paths, and he has that dislike to 
acknowledge himself in the wrong which leads many men into persist- 
ing in false measures. His doctrine of " the strenuous life ' ' mirrors 
his own character. To do things, to keep things moving, to keep the 
top of politics spinning, to gain his end by the shortest and most 
obvious path, to rage against obstacles and seek to break through them 
instead of going round them, is the course to which his disposition 
leads him, whether it brings him face to face with a party leader in 
Washington or a rogue elephant in Uganda. In both cases his method 
is the same, to bring down the game by a center shot. Men of this 
character face peril, they make mistakes and incur dangers which 
others would have avoided. Yet these are traits of character which 
most men approve. Whether cowardly or brave ourselves, we admire 
courage and daring in others, and if these are united to good intentions 
and solid integrity, we are ready to forgive the errors to which they 
often lead, and make a hero of the man who possesses these traits of 
honor, courage and strength. 

Strength of purpose, directness of action, unflinching courage, 
hatred of weakness, persistence in his campaigns against fraud and 
in favor of reform, have been lifelong characteristics of Theodore 
Roosevelt. Had a war broken out during his life, he would probably 
have shown the qualities of a great soldier, perhaps proved himself 
a Grant, possibly a Napoleon of modern type. Having no battalions 
in the field to fight against, he has taken the warrior's method of 
fighting against those in legislative halls and has burst through their 
ranks as Murat's cuirassiers burst through the serried ranks of 
Europe's infantry. A fighter in grain, a warrior born, Roosevelt's 
ways throughout have been those of the soldier, though tempered 
by the political skill and acumen which his field of campaign 
demanded. 

It is a difficult matter to follow the path of Theodore Roosevelt. 
Not that it is in any sense a crooked path. It is, on the contrary, 
notable for its undeviating straightness. But the hero of this work 
has cut so wide a swath in his course through the history of his time, 



2 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

has taken interest in such a multitude of subjects, has made himself 
prominent in so many fields of human endeavor, that one stands in 
deep wonder before the varied panorama of his career. 

He is a man who must be " up and doing. " When not engaged 
in public duties, hunting has been his favorite sport. Not fishing. 
That lacks the activity and spice of danger that appeal to him. 
It is a fact of striking significance, yet one thoroughly characteristic 
of the man, that after filling for years one of the chief places in the 
civilized world, he should leap at one plunge into the heart of una- 
dulterated nature, the realm of native savagery, and exchange his 
gladiatorial struggle in the arena of politics for as strenuous a one 
with the savage denizens of the African wilds. 

When not working, exercising, or hunting, he seems never to 
have spent an hour in idling. The pen or the book have filled his 
leisure hours. A rapid and omniverous reader, with a quick capacity 
of taking in the worth and significance of a book and a retentive 
memory, he has filled his mind with a wealth of knowledge on a great 
variety of themes. Some of the things thus learned have been 
given to us in the various books coming from his pen, and the stir- 
ring events of his life as a hunter have been detailed in others, all of 
them of m.uch interest and full of original views. 

The astonishing thing is how he has found time to do all that he 
has accomplished. It could never have been done by a waster of the 
minutes. For in addition to all here spoken of, come his long mes- 
sages to Congress, his numerous speeches, all of them full of meat for 
thought, and the multitude of things for which only the busiest of 
men could have found time. A man such as this, with the vigor of a 
dynamite charge, and the force of genius to give it effect, could not 
help impressing himself upon his age; making his mark in some 
direction or other, stin'ing the world in some of its many activities. 
There are men v/ho await opportunity; there are others who make 
opportunity. General Grant was one of the former; withr)ut the 
Civil War he would never have been known to the world. E:5i -Presi- 
dent Roosevelt is one of the latter; in war or peace alike he would 
have made his way; he made his own Civil War, and fought it mt, to 
use his own expressive phrase, " to a frazzle. " 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 23 

Is there more to say of Theodore Roosevelt? Yes. He stands 
for this and more. The people of Europe have not alone cheered and 
admired him; they have gazed at him with wonder; not as anew 
species of animal come ont of Africa, but as a new type of man come 
out of America. People and princes alike had never seen his like 
before and do not quite understand him now. Only in America can 
he be fully understood, for he is one of ourselves, an American in 
grain, in its fullest aspect an example of the most modern American- 
ism. There is in him none of the European sense of repose. To do 
things is his forte. To " get there ' ' by the shortest route. To make 
the world spin around him. To win his way by main strength, and 
without regard to precedents or convention. This is the American 
in him, and this it is that easy-going Europe finds it difficult to under- 
stand. 

Through all his life this has been Theodore Roosevelt's record. 
His career has not been so much a climb as a flight. Whatever has 
been put in his hands to do he has done with all his might. Every 
step he has taken has been made the sure foundation for a new step. 
There has been no hesitation, no faltering, no creeping around cor- 
ners. His life has been a steeple-chase from start to goal. Danton 's 
famous phrase: "To dare! again to dare! always to dare!" fits his 
case admirably. Whatever has been put in his hands to do he has 
done with all his might. He is not new as a reformer, but new in his 
methods of reform. He does not beg, request, manipulate, but 
strikes, and strikes to win. The areoplanist of the political field, he 
swoops to rise. 

Let us glance at his record. A legislator at twenty- three, the 
youngest member of the New York Assembly, he made the feathers 
of corruption fly in that store-house of graft, till the air around him 
was as thick as in a snowstorm. Two years of this established his 
fame as a tireless champion of honesty in office. Then as a rancher 
and hunter in the West, he left a trail of anecdote of daring adventure 
behind him. Put on the Civil Service Commission, he woke up that 
moribund body to a vital activity it had never before shown. New 
York next got him and put him at the head of its Police Department. 
It had been a very quiet department before, afraid to stir lest it might 



24 CHARACTERISTICS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

cause some ill smelling disturbance. With Roosevelt in it, house- 
cleaning began. Much dust was raised, but he left his path clean, and 
all over the land people began to look with admiration upon this 
Police Commissioner of a new type. 

Then came in rapid succession his brief but telling era as Assist- 
ant Secretary of the Navy and his Rough Rider career in Cuba. 
Everybody talked of him now. He was the popular hero of the war, 
and rose on the wave of popularity to the go vernorship of New York. 
Here he raised such a commotion among the easy advocates of the 
" good old ways ' ' that their leaders actually had him nominated for 
Vice-President to get rid of the firebrand of Albany. All know what 
followed; the deplorable event that made him President; his phe- 
nomenal service in the Presidential chair; and how afterwards he 
"delighted" himself as a hunter of big game, and "delighted" all 
Europe as a new variety of big game himself. Truly " the stars have 
fought in their courses" for the uplifting of Theodore Roosevelt. 




CHAPTER II 

Battles for Health in Boyhood and Early Life 

'HEODORE ROOSEVELT comes to us from good old Amer- 
ican stock, the family of the Roosevelts tracing their career 
on this continent to the days of the sturdy old Dutch governor, 
Peter Stuyvesant. Klass Martenson Van Roosevelt, the first of the 
name in this country, landed in New Amsterdam in 1649. From that 
time on the family occupied a position of prominence in New York City, 
taking an active part in the war for independence, and later on becom- 
ing energetic and wealthy members of the mercantile community. 

Born in New York City October 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt 
was given his father's name and inherited some of his father's char- 
acteristics, especially his love of outdoor life and his interest in ihQ 
doings of the ''common people." 

A thin, pale, delicate lad, weak and short-sighted, he did not seem 
a hopeful case for the building of a strong man. Indeed, to keep him 
from the rough play of the public schools, which he seemed unfit to 
bear, he was taught at home and in private schools. Yet the boy had 
under this pale exterior the inborn energy from which strong men are 
made. Determined to be the equal of his fellows, "to make a man of 
himself,'' as he has said, he took part in all sorts of boyish sports and 
exercises. He learn-d to swim, to row, to ride; he tramped over hill 
and dale. In this way the delicate child grew up to be a hardy boy 
and developed into a man with muscles of steel and indomitable vim 
and endurance. 

Stories of animals and adventure interested him from early boy- 
hood. The favorite pursuits of the man began to declare themselves 
in the child when he was but six years of age. And his love for a 
good, hard fight in later life .manifested itself as early. There are 
several stories extant of his boyhood contests, one of which may be 
worth telling, 

(as) 



26 BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 

One day he came home from school with muddy clothes and 
scratched and bleeding face and hands. 

''What is the matter, Teddy?" asked his father. 

"Why, a boy up the street made a face at me and said: 'Your 
father's a fakir.' He was a good deal bigger than me, but I couldn't 
stand that; so I just pitched in. I had a pretty hard time, but I licked 
him." 

"That's right, I am glad you licked him," said the older Theodore, 
who evidently was born with fighting blood, like his combative son. 

We may quote from the younger Theodore a statement which lets 
in a good deal of light upon the character of the father and upon the 
inheritance and training of the son. He tells us this : 

"My father, all my people, held that no one had a right to merely 
cumber the earth; that the most contemptible of created beings is the 
man who does nothing. I imbibed the idea that I must work hard, 
whether at making money or whatever. The whole family training 
taught me that I must be doing, must be working — and at decent work. 
I made my health w4iat it is. I determined to be strong and well, and 
did everything to make myself so. By the time I entered Harvard 
College I was able to take my part in whatever sports I liked. I 
wrestled and sparred and ran a great deal while in college, and though 
I never came in first, I got more good out of the exercise than those 
who did, because I immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself." , 

Such was the training of the boy Roosevelt. We have had abun- 
dant examples of its result in the career of the man Roosevelt. 

The daring spirit which he has manifested in later life seems to 
have been born in him. His boyish escapades were many and often 
perilous. A woman who lived next door to the Roosevelt house once 
saw young Theodore hanging from a second-story window and ran 
in alarm to warn his mother. 

"If the Lord," she said, "had not taken care of Theodore, he 
would have been killed long ago." 

The boy's life was an active one througlicut, but his time was 
not wasted. He was taking in knowledge as well as winning hardi- 
hood. In his tramps through the woods his eyes were kept busy, and 
he grew especially to know the birds, their songs, their nests, their 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 27 

plumage. He thus cultivated the habit of observation and study, 
while his active outdoor life gave strength to his muscles and tough- 
ened his frame. 

And in these early days that love of the wild which has become a 
marked element of his character began to develop. He read stories 
of the great Western plains and began to long to set foot in the 
wilderness. Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales fell into his hands and 
these he devoured with a strong appetite. His friend Jacob Riis 
asked him once if he liked them. 

''Like them!" he exclaimed, with kindling eyes. "Like them! 
Why, man, there is nothing like them. I could pass an examination 
in the whole of them to-day. Deerslayer with his long rifle, Jasper 
and Hurry Harry, Ishmael Bush with his seven stalwart sons — do I 
not know them ? I have bunked with them and eaten with them, and 
I know their strength and their weakness. They were narrow and 
hard, but they did the work of their day and opened the w^ay for ours. 
Do I like them? Cooper is unique in American literature, and he will 
grow upon us as w^e get farther away from his day, let the critics say 
what they will." 

Roosevelt as a boy was a busy reader, as he has managed to be a 
busy reader amid the absorbing labors of his later life. But he was 
a true boy, one of the type which he has since laid down for the 
genuine American boy. 

"The chances are strong," he says of young hopeful, "that he 
won't be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must 
not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must 
work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived^ 
and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against jill . 
comers. In life, as in football, the principle to follow is : Hit the line ^ 
hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the Hne hard." He seems 
here speaking of himself. 

The time came when the active, energetic, somewhat strenuous 
lad with whose life story we are concerned entered Harvard College 
to complete his education. He was then eighteen years of age. It 
vvas an education of the type of that of his earlier years, one of much 
physical exercise and a fair share of mental discipline. He did his 



28 BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 

best to "hit the hne hard." We are not told that he shone as a student 
or graduated amid acclamations, but during his years within college 
walls he added much to the strength of his physical and mental fibre. 

The anecdotes extant of his college career are evidence of this. 
He lived the life strong, took active part in all that was going on, and 
became quickly a favorite with his class. They laughed at his odd 
ways and at his enthusiasm, voted him "more or less crazy," but 
respected him for his scholarship and found themselves falling into 
his ways. 

There was an instance of this when he began the child-like 
exercise of skipping the rope, claiming that it was excellent for 
strengthening the leg muscles. Soon his classmates, convinced by his 
arguments, were following in his track, and rope-skipping became a 
pastime of the class. In the gymnasium they wore red stockings with 
their exercise suits. Roosevelt donned a pair of patriotic red-and- 
white striped ones, and did not know at first at what his fellov/s were 
laughing. When he was told he laughed, too, but kept them on. 

There were none of the college games in which he did not take 
part. He did not shine in any of them, but they gave him strength 
and vigor, which was what he was after, rather than victory. He 
played polo, he wrestled and ran with his fellows, he drove a two- 
wheeled gig — badly enough, but he enjoyed it. His first bout with 
the boxing gloves was with the champion of the class, a man twice 
his size and weight, with whom he instinctively matched himself. The 
pummeling that followed he took with good will, and though his 
glasses fell off, leaving him half blind, he grimly refused to cry quarter, 
and pressed the fight home with all the vim of a berserker. Never since 
has he learned how to cry quarter or to acknowledge in any fight that 
he has been whipped. 

There is one story told of him worth repeating, though it may be 
a college fable. In one of his boxing bouts his antagonist took a mean 
advantage, and struck him, drawing blood, while Roosevelt was still 
adjusting his glove. "Foul!" cried the bystanders, but Roosevelt 
merely smiled grimly. 

"I guess you have made a mistake. That is not our way here," 
he said, offering his hand to the fellow as a sign to begin hostilities. 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 29 

Instantly his right hand shot out, taking the man on the point of the 
jaw. The left followed. Down went the culprit with a crash. The 
unfair blow had stirred up all the Roosevelt fighting blood, and it is a 
hot grade of blood when it is up. 

Other things than games and exercise attracted the college boy s 
attention. His father had been active in the work of public aid. He 
died while the boy was at college, and young Theodore sought to walk 
in his footsteps. He became Secretary of the Prison Reform Associa- 
tion and acted on several committees. In addition he became a teacher 
in a Sunday-school. His family faith was the Dutch Reformed, but 
he found no church of that denomination at Cambridge, and drifted 
into a mission school of the high church Episcopalian faith. 

lie did not stay there long. One day a boy came to his class with 
a black eye. When questioned, he acknowledged that he got it in a 
fight, and that, too, on Sunday. The class was scandalized and the 
teacher questioned him sternly. The fact came out that "Ji"''/' the 
other boy, had sat beside the lad's sister and had pinched her all 
through the school hour. A fight followed, in which Jim got soundly 
punched, the avenger of his sister coming out with a black eye. 

"You did just right," was Roosevelt's verdict, and he gave the 
young champion a dollar. 

This pleased the class highly. It appealed to them as justice. 
But when it got out among the school officers they were scandalized. 
And Roosevelt was a black sheep among them in other ways. He did 
•^xOt observe the formalities of the high church service as they thought 
he should. They asked if he had any objection to them. None in the 
world, but — he was Dutch Reformed. This was too much. Some 
i words followed and Roosevelt got out and entered a Congregational 
Sunday-school near by, where he taught during the remainder of his 
college term. Just what he taught we are not aware, but it seems 
rather amusing to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a Sunday-school 
teacher. 

What now about the real work for which one goes to college, the 
studies, the diligent pursuit of knowledge? That he was an earnest 
student of those subjects which especially interested him we may be 
sure from what we know of the man. His tastes turned toward the 



30 BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 

study of living things, men and animals. As the years went on he 
grew deeply interested in the study of human life, history and institu- 
tions. Political principles attracted him and he read the "Federalist" 
with deep absorption. To become lost in a book, indeed, was common 
with him. The story goes that, when visiting a fellow-student, he 
would be apt to pick up a volume, and immediately become so buried 
in its contents that a cannon would hardly have awakened him to the 
social duty of the hour. 

Before leaving college he had gone beyond reading to the task of 
writing a book. Reading the extant histories of naval battles in the 
War of 1812, he found them unfairly partisan. William James's 
history, an English work, was full of one-sided statements. The 
American histories he examined seemed as much on the other side. 
An impartial history appeared to be needed, and he set out to write one. 
He studied the official files, and "The Naval History of 1812," his first 
work, is an acknowledged authority. Its fairness led to his being 
complimented by an invitation to write the chapter on this war for the 
monumental British work, "The Royal Navy." 

We cannot go further into the details of Roosevelt's college life. 
It must suffice to say that when, in 1880, graduation day arrived, he 
stood among the first twenty of the one hundred and forty of his class ; 
not at the top, but at a very respectable distance from the bottom. 

His college career ended, he went abroad to get a glimpse of the 
world outside America. But he did not stay long. His love of walking 
led him to take a tramp afoot through Germany. The sight of the 
Alps inspired him to climb the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn. He 
halted for a period of study at Dresden. His journey reached as far 
east as Asia. But he was back in New York in the year after his 
graduation, prepared to take his part in the battle of life. 



CHAPTER III. 

Exposing Graft in New York State 

THE career of a lawyer, which was the first idea of the college 
graduate, did not long hold the ambitious young man. Engag- 
ing in legal study in the office of his uncle, Robert B. Roosevelt, 
at the age of twenty-three, he at once took part in the political affairs 
of his district, and with such energy and eft'ect that he was elected as a 
State representative before the year ended. It happened, as he tells 
us, in this way : 

"After leaving college I went to the local political headquarters, 
attended all the meetings and took my part in whatever came up. 
There arose a revolt against the member of Assembly from that dis- 
trict, and I was nominated to succeed him and elected." 

A rapid beginning this for so young a man. His innate power 
must have been very evident to meet with the sudden recognition. 
His legal studies ended then and there, for from that time on he was 
too deeply engaged in public duties to be able to devote time to so 
exhausting a pursuit as the law. 

It was in the fall of 1881 that he w^as elected, and when he entered 
the State House at Albany in 1882 he was the youngest member of 
the Assembly. Yet he was full of ideas, overflowing with energy, and 
instead of keeping in the background, as such youthful legislators are 
expected to do, he soon made himself a storm center in the House. 

Beginning with a study of his colleagues, within two months he 
had classified them all, dividing them into tv/o classes — the good and 
the bad. The former were decidedly in the minority, but the young 
Assemblyman lost no time in identifying himself with them, and this 
with such force and ability that he was soon their undisputed leader. 
There was corruption, abundance of it, deep and intrenched, corrup- 
tion much of which had slept serene and undisturbed for years, and it 
was against this that he couched his lance. 

(31) 



32 EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 

Some of the veterans were at first amused at the precocious 
assaults of the young member from the Twenty-first District, and 
rather inclined to laugh at his undisciplined energy. But they soon 
found that he was a fighter who could not be kept under. He was 
a ready and attractive speaker, good-natured yet hard-hitting, and 
could be savagely sarcastic when he had some piece of rascality to 
expose. His good clothes and eye-glasses made some of the members 
think him effeminate, but they were not long in learning that he had 
plenty of courage, both mental and physical, and public opinion outside 
of the legislative halls was quickly in his favor. 

Thus from the start young Roosevelt made his mark in that 
career upon which he had now definitely launched himself. He was 
a born reformer and strongly backed all measures for the public good 
that came before the House. A new and reformed charter was badly 
needed for New York City and for several years attempts had been 
vainly made to enact one. It was this for which he most ardently 
fought. The corrupt city departments had found strength in union, 
and intrenched in this they defied the reformers. Roosevelt attacked 
them separately and one by one he overthrew them. He was twice re- 
elected and during his three terms in the Legislature he saved the 
people hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, which would other- 
wise have gone into the "grab-bag" of the grafters. 

Shall we give some of the particulars of his legislative career? 
One of the most significant came early in his first session, one in which 
he took his stand and made his mark as a born foe of corruption. He 
was new then to the ways of legislators. He was soon to learn some- 
thing of them and to teach his fellow-members something of his own 
ways and ideas. 

The occasion was the following: Such high officials as the 
Attorney-General of the State and a judge of the Supreme Court 
became involved in an unsavory bit of corruption connected with an 
elevated railway ring. The people were aroused by the scandalous 
affair and petitioned the Legislature. Young Roosevelt waited to see 
what they would do. That the honor of the judiciary should be 
smirched was a thing of horror to him. When he saw that they 
proposed to do nothing and smother the inquiry, the knightly spirit 
in him arose. 




Copyright, 1905, by W. H. Rau 

TAKING THE INAUGURAL OATH AS PRESIDENT 

The Impressive ceremony took place March 4. 11)05. when Theodore Roosevelt entered upon 
the first full term to which he was elected. 








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EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 33 

It was the true opening day in his pubHc career when, on April 6, 
1882, he rose from his seat in the Assembly and demanded that Judge 
Westbrook, of Newburg, should be impeached. The speech he made 
was one not strikingly eloquent, but it was one in which he did not 
hesitate to call a spade a spade. To him a thief worth a million was 
still a thief and deserved no softer name. He told the plain truth in 
indignant words and slashed savagely at the two corrupt officials. 

The leader of the Republicans in the House followed the insurgent 
with soothing words. He desired that young Mr. Roosevelt should 
have time to think if his course had been wise, saying mildly, 'T have 
seen many reputations in the State broken down by loose charges made 
in the Legislature." 

The vote was taken and "Young Mr. Roosevelt" was squelched. 
But he did not stay squelched. He defied the party leaders and their 
admonitions to wisdom. The next day and the next day and the next 
day he was up again, pounding away with all the strength in him. 
Reporters took it up. The scandal got into the papers and the public 
indignation widened. After eight days of this unwearying assault he 
demanded a new vote on his resolution. By this time the thing had 
spread throughout the State. The A'ssemblymen did not dare put 
themselves on record as seeking to hide corruption. The opposition 
collapsed. Roosevelt won by a vote of 104 to 6. 

In the end the delinquent officials escaped through a whitewashing 
report. But Roosevelt had won his fight. From that time he was a 
marked man on the side of justice and truth. What his constituents 
thought of him was shown in the next election, when he was sent back 
with a big majority in a year in which his party went to pieces before 
Democratic assault. What his fellow-members thought of him was 
shown when the Republicans of the Assembly chose him as their candi- 
date for the Speaker of the House. He did not win ; his party was in the 
minority; but the nomination showed that this young man of twenty- 
four had made himself a power, a man to be reckoned with. 

Other battles he fought ; telling ones. The Board of Aldermen at 
that time had the power to confirm or reject the Mayor's appointments 
of New York officials. With such a board as then existed George 
Washington himself would have been helpless in an effort to have a 
pure administration. To elect a reform IjoarH was HopelesSo The 



34 EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 

only remedy lay in taking from the Aldermen their power. This 
Roosevelt fought for and achieved. His bill gave the control over 
appointments to the Mayor himself, and in this way did much to 
strengthen the hands of honest government in New York. 

As for the prevailing system of appointment to office — the "spoils 
system," as it had long been called — it did not appeal to him as the 
way to get good service. The best men could be obtained only by a 
public inquiry into their attainments and fitness, and he was from the 
start a supporter of the merit system which was then in the air. Civil 
Service Reform, alike in nation and State was being demanded, and 
Roosevelt had the honor of introducing the first intelligently drawn 
civil service bill ever presented to the New York Legislature. Passed 
in 1883, by an odd coincidence it was signed by Governor Cleveland 
at nearly the same time as the civil service bill passed by Congress was 
signed by President Arthur. 

By this time the young Assemblyman was looked upon by all 
parties as a rising man. The pot-house politicians could not see why 
'Teddy with the kid gloves" and a fat bank account wanted to meddle 
with things which had gone on well enough for a century. But he 
knew why; the air wa? tainted and he wished to make it fit for an 
honest man to breathe. Therefore, when any odor of corruption arose, 
he dashed in regardless of anything except the warm desire to clear 
the air of its malodorous taint. 

Meanwhile he kept up a degree of interest in New York social 
life, and spent some of his leisure time in the management of the con- 
siderable estate which the death of his father had left to his care. His 
sporting proclivities were manifested in the dogs and horses which he 
kept around him and an occasional dash away with his gun for a 
sporting trip of a month or two. Active outdoor life was a panacea 
which he could not long live without. 

Mr. Roosevelt married during this legislative period, his wife 
being Miss Alice Lee, of Boston, a young lady who deeply admired 
the young Hotspur of the Assembly. This first married life was a brief 
one, his young wife dying in little over a year. She left him a daughter, 
Alice, who was very dear to him. By a sad contingency, His mother 
died in the same week with his wife, leaving him doubly alone. His 
second marriage, to Miss Edith K. Carow, took place in 1886. 



EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 35 

In his third legislative year Roosevelt v^as made chairman of the 
Committee on Cities, an appointment due to the thorough knowledge 
he had attained of affairs in New York and other cities. As such he 
introduced much reform legislation, one of his most important bills 
being that which abolished fees in the offices of the Register and the 
County Clerk. 

In 1884 he was a member of the Republican State Convention and 
was elected by it one of New York's four delegates-at-large to the 
National Republican Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presi- 
dency. George F. Edmunds was his choice for this office. James G. 
Blaine proved the favorite candidate of the convention. Roosevelt was 
one of the strong members in opposition and fought hard to prevent 
Blaine's nomination. The result was a sore thrust to him. Some of 
Blaine's bitter opponents went over to Cleveland, but in this defection 
Roosevelt would not take part. "Whatever good I have accomplished 
has been through the Republican party," he said, and held that no 
results of importance could be gained except through the regular party 
organization. 

As to how he impressed his party at this time we have evidence 
in the words of George William Curtis, a fellow-delegate. He had his 
first meeting with Roosevelt during the heat of the strife and was 
surprised at his youthful appearance. This he said of him to a 
reporter : 

"You'll know more, sir, later; a deal more, or I am much in error. 
Young ? Why, he is just out of school almost, and yet he is a force to 
be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be criticising 
or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and experience 
of his elders, none of them can move him an iota from convictions as 
to men and measures once formed and rooted. He will not truckle nor 
cringe, he seems to court opposition to the point of being somewhat 
pugnacious. His political life will probably be a turbulent one, but he 
will be a figure, not a figurehead, in future development." 

This year (1884) ended Roosevelt's legislative life. He left it 
for a long holiday In the West, the scene of his boyhood dreams and 
aspirations. The story of this outing must wait till our next chapter. 
It must suffice here to say that it ended in 1886, when, sitting by a 



36 EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 

campfire, he read in a newspaper sent him from New York that a con- 
vention of independent citizens had chosen him as their nominee for 
Mayor of that city. That night he hung up his rifle, packed his trunk, 
and bade good-bye to his hfe on the plains, starting East to plunge 
once more into the troubled pool of politics. 

There were two other candidates for the office, Abram S. 
Hewitt, the choice of Tammany, and Henry George, the single-tax 
advocate, the nominee of the United Labor party. The citizens who 
nominated Roosevelt did so because they wanted a hard fighter and 
knew they would have one in him. His fight was vigorous, but the 
opposing forces were too strong, and Hewitt was chosen with a 
plurality vote of about 22,000. He had "ruined himself" politically, 
some said, as others had said he had "ruined himself" in his fight with 
the Organization in the Assembly. He was one who did not stay 
"ruined." In the early eighties Andrew D. White, President of Cornell 
University, said to his class : 

"Young gentlemen, some of you will enter public life. I call your 
attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our Legislature. He is on the 
right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future for a young 
man, but let me tell you that if any man of his age was ever pointed 
straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roosevelt." 

Hazardous as Mr. White deemed the prophecy, it proved a true 
one. 




CHAPTER IV 

Among the Cowboys and in the Hunting Field 

"E do not know if the spirit of adventure and the love of wild 
life is innate in the Roosevelt blood, or if Theodore Roose- 
velt got these traits from the Scotch-Irish strain of his 
mother's race. What we do know is that he has them implanted in 
the very fibre of his being. Civilized life and the strife of politics are 
persistent in their demands, but they have never been strong enough 
to hold him a close prisoner. He has broken away from them at 
frequent intervals for a bout in the hunting field, and did so decidedly 
after his three years "of legislative life at Albany, seeking a region 
wide enough for him to breathe in freely on the vast plains of the 
wide West. 

Shaking the mire of legislative life from his feet, he sought a 
new field of activity in the frontier region of Dakota, where he spent 
several years in the enjoyment of unadulterated nature, hunting, 
fishing, ranching and roughing it in true Western style, while gath- 
ering an ample supply of that buoyant health that has stood him in 
such good stead since. He started and ran a cattle ranch of his own, 
living in a rough log house partly the work of his own hands. It was 
so far in the wilderness that he had the experience of shooting a deer 
from his own front door. 

He had his own herds to care for and did so in true cowboy style. 
Dressed in a flannel shirt and rough overalls tucked into alligator 
boots, he would help his men in rounding up the cattle, riding 
with the best of them and keeping in the saddle to the end. Then he 
would go home, tingling with the spice of wild outdoor life, to sleep 
off his fatigue in bearskins and buffalo robes, the former wearers of 
which may have fallen under his own rifle. It was a rough and ready 
life, but Roosevelt seemed to the manner born, and enjoyed it as thor- 
oughly as if he had never known what luxury and ease meant. 

(37) 



32 AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 



His ranch lay on both sides of the Little Missouri, in Dakota 
Territory, that section of it which is now the State of North 
Dakota. He lived here in the open, making friends with the un- 
disciplined ranchmen and frontiersmen, taking part in all the duties 

of the ranch, and varying 
this with hunting excur- 
sions for big game in the 
isurrounding plains and 
on the not distant flanks 
of the Rocky Mountains. 
Vignettes of his life 
here stand out pictur- 
esquely. Thus he tells 
us, not without a .sense of 
exultation, of being thir- 
ty-six hours in the saddle 
as one of a party, dis- 
mounting only to change 
horses and to eat. Again 
we behold him with one 
cowboy keeping night 
guard over a herd of a 
thousand cattle in a dry 
camp, spending the whole 
night on horseback in 
strenuous efforts to keep 
the thirsty cattle from 
stampeding in search of 
water. 

More interesting still is the story of the round-up of a herd of 
some two thousand in the midst of a driving blizzard, with pouring 
rain that stretched out in stinging level sheets before the wild wind. 
With this were blinding lightning flashes and terrific thunder wdiich 
maddened the frightened animals, rendering it next to impossible to 
hold them. It reads like the story of a Homeric battle. Round and 
round rode Roosevelt and his men, wheeling and swaying, galloping 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN HIS HUNTING COSTUME 



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AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 39 

madly round the stampeding herd, at times checking their horses so 
sharply as to bring them to their haunches or even throw them, to the 
ground, until finally they got the beasts corralled and made a mad 
break for the wagons. 

"Though there is much work and hardship, rough fare and 
monotony and exposure connected with the round-up," writes Mr. 
Roosevelt, "yet there are few men who do not look forward to it and 
back to it with pleasure. It is superbly health-giving and is full of 
excitement and adventure, calling for the exhibition of pluck, self- 
reliance, hardihood and daring horsemanship; and of all forms of 
physical labor the easiest and pleasantest is to sit in the saddle." 

Certainly the late legislator found exhilaration and enjoyment m 
it, and when he came back from this wild life to New York it was with 
a fresh stock of sturdy health. 

When winter came life on the plains lost much of its attraction. 
Grim desolation replaced the genial summer climate. From the north 
blew furious gales, driving blinding snows before them. Or if the 
howling winds ceased for a season, a merciless cold hooded over the 
land, turning the earth to stone, the rivers to sheets of crystal ice. In 
this season there w^as less work for the ranchmen. The horses shifted 
for themselves and needed no care. The cattle demanded some looking 
after, but much of the time was spent in the ranch-house before the 
huge fireplaces filled with blazing logs. During this period Roosevelt 
spent much time with his pen, describing his experience in his "Hunt- 
ing Trips of a Ranchman." Another book dealing with this period of 
his life was his "Ranch Life and Hunting Trail." About this time 
also he wrote two works of biography, "Life of Thomas Hart Benton" 
and "Life of Gouverneur Morris." 

As may well be supposed, a man of Theodore Roosevelt's character 
made himself felt in the West as he had done in the East. The cowboys 
looked on him as a true comrade, a man who led instead of following, 
who could ride and shoot with the best of them and gave no sign of 
considering himself better than they. Certain anecdotes of his doi^.c^s 
are among the fireside lore of the plains. 

Here is the story of the frontier "bad man," who took the "four- 
eyed" stranger for a tenderfoot and set out to have some sport with 



40 AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 

him. The rough, well primed with whisky, faced him with a revolver 
in each hand and with a curse bade him treat, enforcing his demand 
by an exhibition of "gun-play." Around sat a roomful of men, none 
of them friends of Roosevelt, who was a stranger in the town. 

It was a case in which common sense counseled obedience, and the 
seeming tenderfoot rose as if to obey. The next instant his left hand 
went out with one of his old Harvard hits and the bully crashed against 
the wall and measured his length on the floor, his pistols exploding in 
the air. When he came to his wits he looked up to see what sort of 
an elephant had trodden on him, and found the tenderfoot standing 
over him, with battle in his eyes. 

"Served him right," was the decision of the crowd and the 
astounded rough incontinently surrended and gave up his guns. This 
was Roosevelt's only experience of this kind. 

Not unlike it, however, is the story of the sheriff who favored some 
cattle thieves, letting them escape. At least there was reason to 
believe that he sided with the outlaws and a meeting of ranch owners 
was held to consider the case. The sheriff was present, and in the 
midst of the meeting Mr. Roosevelt arose and squarely accused this 
official with aiding the cattle thieves. He told him that he and his 
fellows believed the charges to be true. He was unarmed, while from 
the pockets of the rough westerner peeped the handles of two big 
revolvers. And the reputation of the man was such that few of the 
ranchmen would have dared to face him with such charges. 

But the keen unflinching gaze of the inquisitor cowed the fellow. 
The ranchmen sitting around awaited his reply. None came. By his 
silence he acknowledged the truth of the accusation. 

Then there is the story of the Marquis de Mores, a queer French- 
man who had a ranch near Roosevelt's. Some trouble had arisen 
between their cowboys and the Marquis was offended by something 
Roosevelt was reported to have said. Without waiting to inquire into 
its truth he sent Roosevelt a challenge, writing that "there was a way 
for gentlemen to settle their differences." 

Roosevelt's reply was that the story set afloat was a He, that the 
Marquis had no business to believe it upon such evidence as he had, 
and that he would follow his note in person within the hour. He 



AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 4E 

started out, but before reaching the town where the Marquis was he 
met the messenger returning with a second note in which the French^ 
man apologized and cordially invited Roosevelt to dine with him. 

The most exciting of Roosevelt's adventures was that of his win- 
ter hunt for a gang of cattle thieves, down a stream filled with pack 
ice. He got them, three of them, and held them prisoner by mak- 
ing them take off their boots. It was a cactus country, through 
which no one would dare to go imshod. The nearest wagon was 
fifteen miles away, but Roosevelt went for it, leaving his assistants on 
guard over the thieves. The settler loaned it, though he swore that he 
could not understand why so much trouble was taken with thieves who 
might be hanged ofif hand. 

With his three prisoners in the wagon Roosevelt set out for Dick- 
inson, the nearest town. The roads were very bad and it took two 
days and a night to make the journey. His two assistants having to 
leave him, he had nobody but himself and the driver, of whom he knew 
nothing, to guard the three "bad men." 

Putting them in the wagon, he walked behind, a Winchester across 
his shoulder to use in case of need. The road was ankle deep in icy 
mud. The night passed in a frontier hut, in which the self-appointed 
guard sat wide awake all night against the cabin door and watched his 
cowed captives. Late the next day he handed over his prisoners to the 
sheriff of Dickinson. Nothing could show better the dogged deter- 
mination of Theodore Roosevelt when he had made up his mind to do a 
thing. 

Such are the current anecdotes of Roosevelt's ranch life in the 
West. But there was another side to this life, the hunting one, which 
calls for some attention. The Indians of the West at that time were 
fairly quiet, though he did have one adventure with the "noble red- 
man" in which a ready show of his rifle prevented something worse. 
But there was big game in abundance, the grizzly bear, the elk, the 
mountain sheep, the deer and antelope, and even the bison, which as 
yet had not been quite exterminated. 

Of the several tales of his hunting life much the most thrilling is 
that of an encounter he had with a grizzly, at a time when he was hunt- 
ing alone in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Having made his 

B 



42 AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 

camp by the side of a crystal brook he strolled out to see if he could get 
a grouse for supper. To his surprise he encountered instead a giant 
grizzly. He fired at and wounded the animal, which took refuge in a 
laurel thicket. Night was at hand and the hunter peered into the 
thicket, eager for a second shot. While he did so the bear came sud- 
denly out. "Scarlet strings of froth hung from his lips; his eyes 
burned like embers in the gloom.'' 

Roosevelt fired again, the bullet, as it afterwards proved, shatter- 
ing the point of the grizzly's heart. We must let the hunter himself 
tell the remainder of this story: 

"Instantly the great bear turned with a harsh roar of fury and 
challenge, blowing the bloody foam from his mouth, so that I saw the 
gleam of his white fangs ; and then he char^ged straight at me, crash- 
ing and bounding through the laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. 
I waited until he came to a fallen tree, raking him as he topped it with 
a ball that entered his chest and most through the cavity of his body, 
but he neither swerved nor flinched and at the nioment I did not know 
that I had struck him. 

"He came steadily on and in another second was almost upon me. 
I fired for his forehead, but my bullet went low, entering his open 
mouth, smashing his lower jaw, and going into his neck. I leaped to 
one side almost as I pulled the trigger, and through the hanging 
smoke the first thing I saw was his paw as he made a vicious side 
blow at me. The rush of his charge carried him past. As he struck, 
he lurched forward, leaving a pool of bright blood where his muzzle 
hit the ground; but he recovered himself and made one or two jumps 
onwards, while I hurriedly jammed a couple of cartridges into the 
magazine — my rifle holding only four, all of which I had fired. Then 
he tried to pull up, but as he did so his muscles seemed suddently to 
give way, his head drooped, and he rolled over and over like a shot 
rabbit. Each of my first three bullets had inflicted a mortal wound." 

The skin and head of this monarch of the Rockies are still among 
Mr. Roosevelt's cherished treasures. 

Not so thrilling, yet in a sense more unpleasant, was his shooting 
of a "silver-tip" bear cub, which he hastened to pick up, knowing what 
it meant if Madame Bruin should happen that way and find her cub 



AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 43 

meddled with. Making a wild grab, for a quick get-away, he found 
his hand impaled upon a hundred porcupine quills. That was the 
kind of cub he had brought down. It is probable that he laughed at 
this in after years, but he was in no laughing humor just then. 

We have not space to tell of his hunting the prong-horn antelope, 
the black-tail mountain deer, the stately elk of the hills, the jig-horn, 
cliff-haunting sheep, the mountain goat, and the many smaller crea- 
tures of the wilds. It must suffice to say that our daring hunter had 
many exciting, though not dangerous, adventures in search of these, 
winning many trophies of his skill, and left the West with the double 
reputation of being an able rancher and a daring hunter. 



CHAPTER V 

Fighting the Spoils Hunters and Rascals 

THE years of Roosevelt's early political life were those of the 
origin of legalized Civil Service Reform in the United States. 
It is generally recognized that the assassination of President 
Garfield was a direct outcome of the moss-grown spoils system that 
had so long prevailed. This dire event hastened the reform, and in 
1883 a Civil Service Act was passed which provided for a board of 
commissioners and for the appointment to office by examination of 
candidates. The power of appointment was in a measure taken out of 
the President's hands, the law giving the first chance for an office to 
those who best stood the test of examination. 

President Harrison, after taking his seat in 1889, appointed the 
dauntless young New York reformer on the Civil Service Commission, 
and made him chairman of that body. The President had good reason 
for this act. In 1884 Roosevelt had succeeded in securing the passage 
of a Civil Service Reform law for New York, and his work in this 
direction had made him the logical head of the difficult Federal reform. 

No better selection could have been made. Roosevelt was a man 
capable of a vast amount of w^ork, and saw that in this new field there 
was a call for his utmost energy. The law had been widely evaded or 
ignored, the spoils system was fighting hard for its control of the 
perquisites, and only a fighter ready to hit square from the shoulder 
was fitted to enter the contest. 

The law had its loopholes, as all such laws are almost sure to have, 
and its enemies took the utmost advantage of this. The new head of 
the commission saw that he had heroic work before him, and that he 
would have bitter opposition to meet both in and out of Congress. 
But no condition of that kind ever stopped Theodore Roosevelt. While 
it may not be fair to say that he dearly loved a fight, no one can say 
that the prospect of a fight ever had any terror for him. For six years 



t'IGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 45 

he tilled the office, for, after President Harrison's term ended, Presi- 
dent Cleveland, who recognized his ability, courage and sterling 
integrity, continued him in it. 

It was a work he liked. With the conviction that the spoils- 
monger and the bribe-giver were equally bad, he assailed them both 
without favor or mercy, "ousting the rascals" and enforcing the law 
as it had never been enforced before. He was a Republican from the 
North. Two members of the commission were from the South, — 
Democrats, who had served in the Confederate Army, — ^but in all the 
dealings of the commission there was no instance in which the politics 
of any person was considered in any case that came before them. 

When one day a paragraph got into the papers to the effect that 
only Republicans need try to enter the government service during ? 
Republican administration, Roosevelt was quick in taking up tl 
challenge. 

"This," he said, "is an institution not for Republicans and not for 
Democrats, but for the whole American people. It belongs to them 
and will be administered, as long as I stay here, in their interest with- 
out discrimination." 

And to prove his words he asked the representatives of the South- 
ern papers in Washington to publish in their papers that the young 
men of the South have not been seeking their proper share of positions 
under the government, and that if they chose to come forward they 
would be given an equal opportunity with everyone else, regardless of 
their political opinions. 

They did come forward, plenty of them. The examinations on 
the Southern route began to swarm with bright young fellows, and 
the word of Roosevelt was quickly proved, that not party, but merit, 
ruled in appointments to office. 

Commissioner Roosevelt opened himself to much criticism and 
faced many opponents, — but he has ever since been doing the same 
thing and with much the same effect. Criticism and opposition have 
never deterred him from doing the thing which he deemed right. 
Once the opponents of the merit system sought to tie the hands of the 
Commission by refusing to give it an adequate sum of money for its 
work. Roosevelt met them half-way. Sending for the list of exam- 



46 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 

ination routes, he revised it, cutting out the districts represented by the 
men who had voted against the grant. He explained through the 
newspapers that, since some districts must be sacrificed through lack 
of money, it was only just that those members who had voted against 
the necessary appropriation should be the ones to lose its benefit. 
There was talk of "impeachment,^' "removal," etc., but nothing was 
done, and the Commission got its money after that. 

Before the Roosevelt period the Commission did its work in 
secret. But secrecy is alien to the Roosevelt instincts. The new 
Commissioner was a man who liked to be in the open air and did not 
fancy hiding his arts behind a veil. Hence, upon his entrance into the 
Civil Service Commission, its doors, for the first time in its existence, 
were thrown open to all comers. No one could say now, as had been 
id before, that there was any mystery connected with its workings. 
Afterwards, if any member of Congress showed himself ignorant of 
the conditions of the merit system, he would be cordially invited by 
the next mail to explore the whole work of the Commission to his 
heart's content. Tlie newspaper correspondents were made welcome, 
and furnished with any information that could properly be given out. 

During Roosevelt's six years on the Commission things were 
done. irse we cannot give him the credit for all these things. 

'He was not the Commission, but only one of its members. But another 
member, Mr. John H. Procter, has said this about his activity. 

"Every day I went to the office as to an entertainment. I knew 
something was sure to turn up to make it worth my while, with him 
there. When he went away, I had heart in it no longer." 

And President Cleveland wrote this to Roosevelt when he regret- 
fully accepted his resignation to engage in a new line of work : 

"You are certainly to be congratulated upon the extent and per- 
manence of Civil Service Reform methods which you have so substan- 
tially aided in bringing about." 

What had taken place may be expressed in figures as follows: 
When he entered the Commission there were 14,000 officers under 
Civil Service rules. When he left there were 40,000. And the work 
had been put on a solid foundation which has never since given way. 
The spoils system has largely passed away; the merit system has taken 
its place. 



FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 47 

The cause of his leaving the Commission was a summons from his 
native city, which wanted him for President of its Board of Pohce 
Commissioners. This strongly appealed to him. It was bringing him 
back upon his old battlefield. It was a field which he knew inch by 
inch. And it w^as one in which there was strenuous work to be done. 
The rottenness of party politics had deeply invaded this department 
and it sadly needed an earthquake shaking up. He went into it with 
the earnest vim with which he was soon after to go into the Spanish 
War. 

*T thought the storm center was in New York," he said, "and so 
I came there. It is a great piece of practical work. I like to take 
hold of work that has been done by a Tammany leader and do it as well, 
only by approaching it from the opposite direction. The thing that 
attracted me to it was that it was to be done in the hurly-burly, for I 
don't like cloister life." 

A reform administration, that of Mayor Strong, was then in 
power, and soldiers of reform were needed to lead the ranks. The 
new Commissioner stirred up the town. The regulation reformers 
did not know whether to applaud or curse. Many declared that his 
rigid enforcement of the Excise law enabled Tammany to return to 
power by capturing the votes of liquor men who had temporarily joined 
the reformers. In reply Roosevelt said he had sworn to enforce all 
the laws and he would not compromise his conscience. Besides, he 
held that the best way to get a bad law repealed was to rigidly enforce 
it. The "Arabian Nights" features of Mr. Roosevelt's police adminis- 
tration, his sudden appearance in unexpected places, his unheralded 
personal tours of inspection about the city after dark, catching many a 
policeman napping — all this and several volumes more are a part of 
history. Roosevelt made fame and friends during his police regime, 
and all classes admitted that he was an honest man. He said once, 
at the close of a meeting, that he believed a majority of policemen were 
good men. He believed in giving every applicant a chance to show 
what he could do and treating him honestly and fairly, regardless of 
his nationality, politics, religion or "pull." 

"We have every country represented on the police force," he said. 
"Hebrews working harmoniously with Irishmen; Germans making 



48 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 

good records with Spaniards — in fact, every nationality is represented 
almost but the Chinese, and I find the men as a class willing to give 
faithful service. When men find the official in charge of them consis- 
tent, always keeping his word to the letter, they will soon begin follow- 
ing the example set before them. Treat a man squarely and you will 
get square treatment in return. That is human nature and sound 
doctrine, whether in the police or in any other department." 

Being an honest man and determined to do his duty fearlessly 
and without favor, Mr. Roosevelt was not caught in the many traps 
set for him. All attempts to ensnare him were failures and soon 
appeared so ridiculous that he became the best "let alone" official in 
the city government. 

Jacob Riis says that "Jobs innumerable were put up to discredit 
the President of the Board and inveigle him into awkward positions. 
Probably he never knew of one-tenth of them. Mr. Roosevelt walked 
through them with perfect unconcern, kicking aside the snares that 
were set so elaborately to catch him. The politicians who saw him 
walk apparently blindly into a trap and beheld him emerge with dam- 
age to the trap only, could not understand it. They concluded it was 
his luck. It was not. It was his sense. He told me once after such 
a time that it was a matter of conviction with him that no frank and 
honest man could be in the long run entangled by the snares of 
plotters, whatever appearances might for the moment indicate. So 
he walked unharmed in it all." 

But the new Police President had no path of roses to walk in. 
Corruption was deeply planted and it was not easy to uproot it. The 
system of blackmail by police and officials was hard to overcome. It 
was the enforcement of the Sunday liquor law, in particular, that gave 
trouble to the Commission. There were plenty of arrests, indeed, for 
its violation, but these were of people who had no political pull or 
refused to pay the police for shut eyes. This system of blackmail 
existed in the case of all illegal pursuits, which could be carried on 
unseen by the police if the necessary money were forthcoming, but to 
which refusal to pay brought sudden retribution. 

Dishonesty at elections was another of the prevailing forms of 
vice. Honesty at the ballot box had almost ceased to exist, and it 



FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 49 

needed strenuous labor on the part of the Commission to overcome 
this, as in the case of various other vicious practices. 

All we can say here is that during the two years of Mr. Roosevelt's 
presidency the Police Commission did much toward clearing the atmos- 
phere. The number of arrests and convictions for misdemeanor 
largely increased, the citizens had better protection than they had had 
for years, and the reign of corruption largely ceased. Mr. Roosevelt 
had the faculty for organization strongly developed. Honor and 
reward came to the men who did their duty, discredit or dismissal to 
those who shirked it. A police force should be a military force, and 
this is what Roosevelt made of the men under him. He was not the 
chief of police, but when he came into police headquarters, his quick 
nervous stride and alert eyes affected every policeman in sight as 
though he had felt an electric shock. There was an involuntary 
straightening up, both physical and mental. Disorder and bad admin- 
istration prevailed before he entered the Board. When he left it New 
York had an admirably trained and effective military force of blue- 
coated public protectors, men who had won the esteem of respectable 
citizens and whose honesty was beyond question. 

There is a story of his dealing with strikers who had trouble with 
the police which reminds us of that of the Western sheriff. It is thus 
told by Jacob Riis : 

"Roosevelt saw that the trouble was in their not understanding 
one another, and he asked the labor leaders to meet him at Clarendon 
Hall to talk it over. Together we trudged through a blinding snow- 
storm to the meeting. This was at the beginning of things, when the 
town had not yet got the bearings of the man. The strike leaders 
thought they had to do with an ambitious politician and they tried 
bluster. They would do so and so unless the police were compliant; 
and they watched to get him placed. They had not long to wait. 
Roosevelt called a halt, short and sharp. 

" 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'we want to understand one another. That 
was my object in coming here. Remember, please, that he who 
counsel's violence does the cause of labor the poorest service. Also, he 
loses his case. Understand distinctly that order will be kept. The 
police will keep it. Now, gentlemen !' 



so FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 

" There was a moment's amazed suspense, and then the hall rang 
with their cheers. They had him placed then, for they knew a man 
when they saw him. And he— he went home proud and happy, for 
his trust in his fellow-man was justified. ' ' 

Such was the type of Theodore Roosevelt's work as Police 
Commissioner. When he had finished the force was the cleanest 
New York ever has known, loot and blackmail had been crushed 
out of existence, and for the first time for years decency in the police 
service prevailed. He appointed men solely on their micrits and 
without regard to politics or religion, insisted on their doing their 
duty, and new ideas as to the true mission of the police came into 
existence. Roosevelt had no vague theories to work up to. He 
knew that Avhile reform might be furthered, human nature could not 
be changed, and that no one man could do away with all the evil 
that prevailed. But he threw a searchlight on crime and many 
foul blots were swept away. Though he did not accomplish all he 
sought to do, he left behind him a cleaner Gotham than its people 
had seen for years, and the Roosevelt reign will not soon be forgotten 
in the history of police service in New York. 



CHAPTER VI 

Crushing Cuba's Oppressors 

Roosevelt as Naval Secretary and Rough Rider 

IN 1897 the scent of war was in the air. The barbarities of Spanish 
rule in Cuba were becoming too ilagrant for our country to long 

endure, and it was growing evident to many that the United 
States might soon have to take a hand in the game. It was at this 
interval of growing indignation at Spanish methods that another 
President found occasion to avail himself of Mr. Roosevelt's services. 
His efficiency in the police service of New York had become the talk 
of the country, and President McKinley found it desirable to offer him 
the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, feeling sure that he was 
the man for the place. 

The new American navy was then in the making, and needed a 
man of energetic character and efficient methods to give it the shaking 
up it needed in the event of a war. It was important to make it ready 
for any emergeilcy, and Roosevelt was amply fitted for the work. 
While occupying the minor post of assistant, his hand was soon felt 
in every detail of naval affairs, and for a time he was virtually at the 
head of the departm.ent. 

The most important work he did was to collect ammunition and 
to insist on the naval gunners being well practiced in marksmanship. 
He was not long in his new post before he felt sure that war was 
coming and that it was his duty to see that the ships were prepared for 
it. Another thing he did was to fill every foreign coaling station with 
an ample supply of fuel. It was this that enabled Dewey to make his 
prom.pt movement from Hongkong to Manila. We have testimony 
to his acuteness in the words of Senator Cushman K. Davis, then head 
of the Committee on Foreign Relations : 

*Tf it had not been for Roosevelt Dewey would not have been 
able to strike the blow that he dealt at Manila. Roosevelt's fore- 
thought, energy and promptness made it possible." 

(si) 



52 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 

What Roosevelt did was to visit the various naval reserves 
throughout the country, inspecting and inquiring into conditions and 
actively pushing repairs upon the ships. As for the practice of the 
men at the guns, there is afloat an anecdote that shows in picturesque 
outline the work of the Assistant Secretary in this direction. 

Not long after his appointment he asked Congress for an appro- 
priation of $800,000 for ammunition. The appropriation was made, 
but, to the surprise of the lawmakers, before many months had passed 
he asked for a second appropriation for the same purpose, this time 
demanding $500,000. 

"What has become of the other appropriation?" he was asked. 

"Every cent of it has been spent for powder and shot, and every 
ounce of powder and shot has been fired away," he replied. 

"And what do you propose to do with the $500,000 you now want?" 

"I will use every dollar of that, too, within the next thirty days in 
practice shooting." 

It was costly practice, but it paid, as was soon to be shown by the 
effectiveness of American gunnery at Manila and Santiago. 

Another thing done by Roosevelt in the same direction was to 
help in passing the personnel bill, which did away with the standing 
cause of bitter feeling between the officers of the line and staff. 

"It is useless," he said, "to spend millions of dollars in the build- 
ing of perfect fighting machines unless we make the personnel which 
is to handle these machines equally perfect." 

The time was soon to come when his work would tell. In Feb- 
ruary, 1898, occurred that criminal disaster which blew up the battle- 
ship "Maine," with all her crew, in Havana harbor. Diplomacy was 
called in to settle this, if possible, but Roosevelt, like most of his coun- 
trymen, felt sure that war would follow, and he redoubled his efforts 
to put the navy into first-rate fighting trim. 

We have told how Roosevelt helped Dewey when the war broke 
out. That was not all. It was due to him that Dewey was on the 
ground at the time. When a man was wanted to command in the 
East, Roosevelt selected Dewey, and stuck to his choice in spite of 
those who said that the Commodore was only a well-dressed dude. 
"It does not matter what kind of clothes and collars he wears," said 



J^AVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER S3 

Roosevelt, "the man will fight. He is the man for the place. He has 
a lion heart." 

He not only kept Dewey in Chinese waters, but held his fleet 
together. The "Olympia" was ordered home, but Roosevelt secured 
the repeal of the order. ''Keep the 'Olympia,' " he cabled him, "and 
keep full of coal." 

He saw clearly what was in the air. And when the day for 
fighting came the blood throbbed strongly in his veins. "There's 
nothing more for me to do here," he said. "I've got to get into the 
fight myself. I have done all I could to bring on the war, because it 
is a just war. Now that it has come I have no business to ask others 
to do the fighting and stay at home myself." 

The fact is, chains could not have kept him at home. There was 
in him too much of the berserker strain for that. He had been fighting 
all his life. Whether in the legislature, on the ranch, in the hunting 
field, in the police service ; it was not in him to lose the chance to feel 
the blood-boiling sensation of the battlefield. 

It was a happy idea of his that suggested the Rough Rider regi- 
ment. The name "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" struck the popular 
fancy, and helped greatly to make Roosevelt's name a household word. 
Before the regiment was organized it had become famous. The taking 
title, "Roosevelt's Rough Riders," was on every one's tongue. 

Never before had such a body of athletes and daredevils been got 
together. Only America could have furnished them. The cowboy, 
the Indian trailer, the hunter, the Indian himself, the pick of the West, 
formed the bulk of the regiment, but with them were mingled the 
athletes of the East, the college football player, the oarsman, the polo 
champion, the trained policeman, even the wealthy society man of 
athletic training. The one pity is that they were not able to show 
their prowess as horsemen, for such a body of cavalry as they would 
have made the world has rarely seen. 

They were out of their native element afoot, and their humorous 
title for themselves, "Wood's Weary Walkers," after their long 
marches in the Cuban jungle, had more truth than poetry in it. 

Roosevelt had been for four years a member of the Eighth Regi- 
ment of the New York State National Guard, and had risen to the 



54 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 

grade of captain in its ranks. He might have been the colonel of the 
new regiment if he had chosen, but he felt that in actual war a man 
who had seen service in the field was needed, and he selected his friend, 
Colonel Leonard Wood, of the Regular Army, to command, contenting 
himself with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

How to get to Cuba was the first important question that arose. 
Of the enlisted men only a small proportion could go on the projected 
expedition to Santiago. Mounted men were debarred and the horses 
had to be left behind, one squadron remaining to take care of them. 
The Rough Riders were among the last of the regiments that received 
permission to go, and might have been left behind but for "Teddy" 
Roosevelt's insistence. Then, when orders came to move to Tampa, 
transportation was refused. In his usual mode of cutting the Gordian 
knot, he seized a train, jumped aboard the engine, and demanded that 
it should move. The train moved. 

Port reached, he did not wait for an official assignment to a 
transport, but put his men without hesitation on board the nearest 
vessel. Much the same thing happened when the landing place in 
Cuba was reached. Following the same bold tactics, he did not wait 
for orders to land his m.en, but got them ashore among the first, and 
on the night of the landing began to march to the front. He even 
passed General Lawton, who was holding the advance guard position 
under orders from General Shafter. 

In all these active movements we hear the name of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Roosevelt, not that of Colonel Wood. The two men, however, 
were of much the same calibre and were intimate friends. They 
worked together as one man. Later on Colonel Wood was promoted 
to the rank of general and his subordinate took the post of colonel. 
Throughout he was identified with the Rough Riders and they with 
him. 

Readers of the war know what followed, how the regiment passed 
the advance outpost — without orders, it is said — and at daylight the 
next morning encountered the Spaniards at Las Guasimas and began 
the first fight of the short war. When General Shafter received the 
news of this fight he was not pleased, for he was told that tlie Amer- 
icans had been cut to pieces. He swore roundly and declared that he 



NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 55 

"would bring that damned cowboy regiment so far in the rear that it 
Vv^ould not get another chance." But when later on news of the cowboy 
victory reached him he wrote a flattering letter to Lieutenant-Colonel 
Roosevelt, in command, congratulating him on the brilliant success 
of his attack. 

Roosevelt and his men were not to be kept back. They fairly 
struggled to the front. On July ist a correspondent saw them moving 
in columns of twos through a densely wooded roadway leading to the 
"Bloody Angle," and while his men were falling wounded around him 
Roosevelt answered the correspondent's "Hello, there!'' with a wave 
of his hand and an exclamation that showed that his heart was in the 
fight. 

Up San Juan Hill they went, Roosevelt leading the charge, the 
Spaniards, from their intrenchments at the top, pouring down a thick 
hail of shells and Mauser bullets. This is the way the charge was 
described in press despatches from the field : 

"Roosevelt was in the lead waving his sword. Out into the open 
and up the hill where death seemed certain, in the face of the con- 
tinous crackle of the Mausers, came the Rough Riders, v/ith the 
Tenth Cavalry alongside. Not a man flinched, all continuing to fire 
as they ran. Roosevelt was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yelling 
like a Sioux, while his own men and the colored cavalry cheered him 
as they charged up the hill. There was no stopping as a man's neigh- 
bor fell, but on they went faster and faster. Suddenly Roosevelt's 
horse stopped, pawed the air for a moment, and fell in a heap. Before 
the horse was down Roosevelt disengaged himself from the saddle and^ 
landing on his feet, again yelled to his m.en, and, sword in hand, 
charged on afoot. 

"It seemed an age to the men who were watching, and to the 
Rough Riders the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were 
undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns would work. 
At last the top of the hill was reached. The Spaniards in the trenches 
could still have annihilated the Am.ericans, but the Yankees' daring 
dazed them. They wavered for an instant and then turned and ran- 
The position was won and the blockhouse captured» In the rush more 
than half of the Rough Riders were woundedo" 



5<5 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 

Let us go on to another incident a month or more later. The war 
was ended. That charge up San Juan Hill had practically ended it. 
During this month the victorious army had been kept in Cuba, doing 
nothing and suffering from a malarial attack that had put more than 
4,000 of the men on the sick list. If an attack of yellow fever, indig- 
enous to that climate, had broken out among the weakened troops, it 
would have proved ten times more fatal than the Spanish bullets. 

Colonel Roosevelt — he was a colonel then — chafed and fretted. 
Doing nothing did not agree with his constitution. He broke out at 
length in the famous ''round robin," which he wrote and his fellow 
officers signed, protesting against keeping the army longer in Cuba, 
exposed to the perils of that pestilential climate. People shook their 
heads when they heard of this and talked of precedents. They did not 
recognize that he was a man to break and make precedents. 

Whatever their opinion, the "round robin," and letter which he 
wrote to General Shafter, making a powerful presentation of the perils 
of the army, had the intended effect. The men were recalled and 
shook the malarial dust of Cuba from their feet. With that event 
closed the war experience of Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Rider 
regiment. 




CHAPTER VII 

Governor and Vice-President 

^HE end of the brief but effective Cuban war left Colonel Roose- 
velt the popular hero of that event. Every war has its popular 
hero, and the dramatic picturesqueness of the cowboy regi- 
ment, with its telling title, the "Rough Riders," was sure to strike the 
public fancy. The newspaper stories of their spectacled colonel dash- 
ing at their head up San Juan Hill, yelling with the loudest and as 
fearless as the best, added to the completeness of the picture in the 
public mind, and Roosevelt w^as lifted upon a pedestal of public appre- 
ciation on which he dwarfed every other soldier w^io took part in the 
affair, as Dewey similarly figured as the chief naval hero. 

That a man of such sudden and great popularity would be allowed 
to sink back into insignificance was very unlikely to follow. The 
American people likes to reward its heroes, the canvass for a new 
governor of New York was in the air, and Theodore Roosevelt was 
the man of the moment. His services in the war had scarcely ended 
before the nomination came. 

The Citizens' Union was the first to nominate him, but he declined 
the compliment, saying that he was a Republican. He proposed to 
stand by his colors. The Democrats, who dreaded him as a popular 
candidate, hoped to prevent his nomination by trying to prove that he 
had lost his legal residence in the State. Their plan failed, and the 
Republican Convention chose him as its candidate by a vote of 752 to 
218 for Governor Black. Van Wyck was the Democratic nominee. 
Their candidate, Parker, had been elected Judge of the Court of 
Appeals the year before by 61,000 majority and on this the party based 
Its hopes, though feeling that the personal popularity of Colonel Roose- 
velt was an element in the situation that might override all party lines 
and claims. It did so, for he carried the election by a majority of 
18,000 over Van Wyck. 

(IT) 



S8 GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

He took a personal part in his own campaign. It is not the 
Roosevelt way to be silent and wait while events are in the air. Out- 
spoken advocacy of everything in which he is interested is his way, 
and he took the stump in his own cause, speaking in miany parts of the 
State. That these speeches were characterized by fire, force and direct- 
ness we need not say. They had also that common sense and practi- 
cal application to the situation which are among his characteristics. 

As in his legislative career, corrupt politics were handled by him 
with indignant sarcasm, while the wrongs the people heaped upon 
themselves by not asserting their right to be well and honestly gov- 
erned strongly engaged his attention. 

The stand he took in the campaign was not the most pleasant one 
to the professional politicians. They felt that as Governor this man 
would make the feathers of corrupt methods fly. They had reason 
for their feeling, for when seated in the Governor's chair it quickly 
became clear that the reign of jobbery for the time was at an end, so 
far as it came under executive control. 

Hasty in action as he had often shown himself, his impetuous 
disposition was now held in by a wise caution and deliberation. In 
selecting the heads of the important State departments he moved with 
especial care, and when announced the appointments were everywhere 
greeted as wise and appropriate. Francis Hendricks, put at the head 
of the Insurance Department, made this department an honor to the 
State, and the same may be said of the work of Colonel John N. 
Partridge, appointed Superintendent of Public Works. Roosevelt was 
not now charging with a yell of martial defiance up San Juan Hill. 
He was cautiously providing for the best interests of a State. 

For a just criticism of what he did in the Governor's chair we 
quote from Dr. Albert Shaw, the clear-headed editor of the ''Review 
of Reviews." He thus characterized the Roosevelt administration : 

"He found the state administration thoroughly political; he left 
it business-like and efficient. He kept thrice over every promise that 
he made to the people in his canvass. Air. Roosevelt so elevated and 
improved the whole tone of the state administration and so effectually 
educated his party and public opinion generally, that future governors 
'vill find easy what was before almost impossible." 



GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 59 

We must deal briefly with the story of his administration. He 
was hardly seated in the Capitol at Albany when he had a consultation 
with a body of labor leaders, for whom he had sent. Labor laws were 
not wanting on the statute books, designed to benefit the laborer ; but 
half of these were dead letters, and some of them had always been 
valueless. 

"These laws are your special concern," said the Governor to his 
visitors. 'T want you to look over them with me and see if they are 
fair, and, if they are, that they be fairly enforced. We will have no 
dead-letter laws. If there is anything wrong you know of, I want you 
to tell me of it. If we need more legislation we will go to the legisla- 
ture and ask for it. If we have enough, we will see to it that the laws 
we have are carried out and the most made of them." 

And this was done, so far as he was able to do it. There arose a 
question about the factory law, which it was claimed was not properly 
enforced. The sweatshops were a disease hard to cure. To satisfy 
himself as to the actual conditions the Governor came down from 
Albany and went through a group of the worst type of tenement houses 
himself. He saw much to disapprove of. 

"There is improvement," he said to the factory inspector, "but not 
enough. I do not think you quite understand what I mean by enforcing 
a law. I don't want to make it as easy as possible for the manufacturer. 
Make the owners of tenements understand that old, badly built, 
uncleanly houses shall not be used for manufacturing in any shape. 
Put the bad tenement at a disadvantage as against the well-constructed 
and well-kept house, and make the house owner as well as the manu- 
facturer understand it." 

The result of this personal inspection was the Tenement House 
Improvement Bill, the need of which he made the legislators see, and 
the effect of which was all on the side of sanitation and fair play. Its 
effect was to check the doings of the slum landlord. 

Democratic orators had predicted that Governor Roosevelt would 
be "too impetuous." He was impetuous by nature, he acknowledged 
that, but he thought he had schooled himself in this particular. Yet 
on the final day of the legislative session of 1899 his impetuous spirit 
blazed out, though in a way that few found amiss. He declared 



8e GOVERIslOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

positively that the Franchise Act, which efforts had been made to 
shelve, ought to be passed — and it was passed. The members of the 
legislature knew that the Governor had voiced public opinion in what 
he said to them, and they did not venture to defeat the measure. 

Another "impetuous" act was the removal from office of Asa B. 
Gardiner, District Attorney of the County of New York, on the charge 
that he had given aid and comfort to Chief of Police Devery, after that 
officer had him indicted for issuing a seditious order to the police force 
regarding violence at the polls. 

Other measures urgently advocated by him were bills to prevent 
the adulteration of food products and fertilizers, to protect game, and ^ 
especially to aid the efficient administration of the state canals and the 
extension of civil service regulations. He further saved the treasury 
of New York City from heavy legalized looting by his unyielding 
opposition to the notorious Ramapo job. 

As Governor he had to do with many momentous questions, and 
he dealt with them all from a lofty standpoint of duty. Many times 
he went opposite to the wishes of his party, but in each case his action 
was creditable to him. He did not escape misunderstanding and mis- 
representation. He had always opposed boss rule, yet he openly 
consulted Mr. Piatt as the leader of the party. Yet with all such con- 
sultation he lived up to his own convictions. That man would have 
had a hardy frame of mind who sought to press any scheme of corrupt 
politics upon him. 

For two years he occupied the Governor's chair. During the first 
year little was done in the way of reform. The utmost he could do 
was to see that no bad laws were enacted. During the second year 
he got a firmer hold and much beneficial legislation was obtained. 

His work was not yet done. There were some reforms which lie 
desired earnestly to see accomplished before he left the Governor's 
chair, reforms which he viewed as essential to the well-being of the 
state. Therefore, when in 1900 his name was mentioned as a candi- 
date for the Vice-Presidency, the suggestion was distasteful to him. 
His work at Albany was not finished. 

An interesting convention was that held by the Republicans at 
Philadelphia in 1900, for the nomination of candidates for the Presi- 



GUVEKNUK AND VICE-PRESIDENT 6i 

dency and Vice-Presidency. In regard to the former there was no 
doubt WiUiam McKinley was the man ; no other was thought of. For 
Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt's name was early set afloat, much 
to his discomfort. He had proposed to be a candidate again for Gov- 
ernor of New York. There was live work to be done. To sit as the 
voiceless Chairman of the Senate was very distasteful to a man of his 
temperament. 

There was opposition to him. Senator Hanna was strongly 
opposed. The man who most wanted to make him Vice-President was 
Senator Depew, of New York — not from any desire to do him honor, 
but to get rid of him in state affairs. 

The nomination was made somewhat in this way. When Presi- 
dent McKinley was nominated and the thunder of the cheering had 
died away. Governor Roosevelt rose to second the nomination. His 
speech was a strong one. He had a speech in his hand, type-written, 
but this he did not once look at, and probably did not follow, speaking 
the thoughts that rose in his mind and speaking them powerfully 
and well. 

What he had to say evidently hit the mark, for the members of 
the convention at once hailed him as Vice-President, shouting for 
McKinley and Roosevelt. At this Senator Depew, seeing his oppor- 
tunity, drawled out, "In the East we call him Teddy." At this the 
shouting grew roof-lifting; "Teddy Roosevelt! Teddy Roosevelt!" 

Depew was achieving his scheme to "shelve" Roosevelt. When 
the latter's name was formally presented to the convention calls for a 
vote rose on every side, and the taking of it quickly began. It ended 
as it only could end under such circumstances. McKinley and Roose- 
velt were the men of 1900. 

Never had a man been nominated for the Vice-Presidency more 
against his will. He did not want the office, and he fully understood 
the purpose of those who were pressing him into it. For a time he 
strongly resisted persuasions to get him to accept, and when he did 
yield it was sorely against his will. Neither he nor those who sought 
to shelve him dreamed for a moment of the coming result, that -Vice- 
President Roosevelt would never preside over a session of the Senate 
but before the year ended would fill the President's chair. 



62 GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

He made the campaign, however, vigorously and effectively. He 
was tireless and indefatigable, traveling during it no less than twenty- 
two thousand miles, making six hundred and seventy-three addresses, 
speaking to three and a half millions of people. The feat was unpre- 
cedented, and it made him known to the people to a remarkable extent. 
He was highly popular before; he was doubly popular when this 
remarkable campaign ended. When the day of election came the popu- 
larity of the candidates was shown in a plurality of 850,000 votes and 
an electoral majority of 137. On the 4th of March, 1901, he took the 
oath of office and became Vice-President of the United States. 




CHAPTER VIII 

A Vigorous Champion in the Presidential Chair 

N the 6th of September, 1901, a lamentable act took place, one 
of those tragic occurrences that are apt to arise from the mad 
ferment of modern life. President McKinley, while shaking 
hands in friendly spirit with his fellow-citizens in the great hall of 
the Bufifalo Exposition, was foully shot down by a half-insane An- 
archist, whose hand the victim had just cordially grasped. 

For a week the suffering martyr lay between life and death, for 
a time showing such signs of recovery that hope overspread the 
country, then rapidly sinking until death came to him in the early 
morning of the 14th. His sad passing away left Theodore Roosevelt 
President, a consunmiation no one had dreamed of when, against his 
will, he was induced to become a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 

The death of McKinley was followed by an event of dramatic 
interest. For a time the recovery of the stricken President seemed so 
assured that Roosevelt felt secure in making a hunting excursion in 
the Adirondacks, for which he had previously arranged. 

When, on Friday, September 13th, word reached the Tahawas 
Club House, where the Vice-President had his headquarters, that the 
exalted victim was fast sinking, Roosevelt was not to be found. He 
had set out early that morning for a tramp in the moimtains, and no 
one knew just where he was. Before starting he had received a 
despatch from Buffalo saying that the President Vv^as in splendid condi- 
tion and not in the sligfhtest dans^er. Under these circumstances he 
had felt it safe to venture upon his mountain stroll. 

The fresh and startling news caused guides and runners to be 
sent out in all directions, with orders to sound a general alarm and find 
the Vice-President as quickly as possible. Yet hours passed away and 
the afternoon was verging into early evening before the signals of the 
searchers were heard and answered and it became evident that the 
Roosevelt party v/as near at hand. 

(63) 



64 I^' THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 

When Colonel Roosevelt was reached and the news of the critical 
condition of the President told him he could scarcely credit it. Startled 
and alarmed, he hurried' back to the Tahawas Club House, feeling that 
he must hasten to Buffalo with the utmost despatch. But the nearest 
railroad station was thirty-five miles distant, and this distance had to 
be covered by stage, over a road rendered heavy by a recent thunder- 
storm. 

When he reached there the Adirondack Stage Line had a coach 
in readiness and had provided relays of horses covering the whole 
distance. All night long the stage coach, bearing its distinguished 
passenger rolled along through the woods, the latter part of the jour- 
ney being through heavy forest timber, which rendered it one of 
actual peril. 

President McKinley had already passed away, though this news 
was not received until he reached the station at North Creek at 5.22 
on the following morning. A special train awaited him and dashed 
away the moment it received the awaited passenger. The trip that 
followed was a record-breaking one, the speed in many instances 
exceeding a mile a minute. It was 1.40 p. m. when it pulled into the 
station at Buffalo, the President, as Roosevelt now was, going to the 
house where his deceased predecessor lay. 

That afternoon he took the oath of office as President of the 
United States, the oath being administered by Judge Hazel, in the 
presence of Secretaries Root, Long, Hitchcock and Wilson, Attorney- 
General Knox and other distinguished persons. The oath taken and 
the document signed, all the preliminaries were finished, and Theodore 
Roosevelt became the legally authorized President of the United States. 

Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man in the history of the 
country to become President of the United States; he had not yet 
completed his forty-third year. The youngest before him being Presi- 
dent Grant, who was forty-seven at the date of his first inauguration. 
The oldest was President Harrison, who took office at the age of 
sixty-eight. It was a heavy responsibility to fall on so young a man. 
How he would act in his new office was the anxious query asked by 
those who remembered the records of Presidents Tyler, Filmore and 
Johnson, who like him had begun as Vice-Presidents. President 



i/V IHE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 6$ 

McKinley stood for certain principles, certain promises to the people 
made in the platform of the year before. Could an impulsive man like 
Theodore Roosevelt, a man full of ideas and views of his own, be 
expected to carry out his predecessor's policy? There was a distinct 
feeling of relief in the community when he came out with a declaration 
that this was what he proposed to do. 

Yet McKinley's policy did not cover the whole range of legisla- 
tion, and the remembrance of Roosevelt's radical reform administra- 
tion in New York was not altogether agreeable to the hide-bound 
conservatives or the class of shady politicians who had axes to grind. 
They felt that a man like this in the Presidential chair might prove 
like the proverbial bull in the china shop. 

Roosevelt's last speech as Vice-President gave some indications of 
his attitude. It was given at Minneapolis on September 2d, three days 
before the tragedy at Buffalo, and gave strong indications of his 
mental attitude. Some quotations from it may not be amiss. 

"Our interests are at bottom common; in the long run we go up 
or go down together. Yet more and more it is evident that the state, 
and if necessary the nation, has got to possess the right of supervision 
and control as regards the great corporations that are its creatures; 
particularly as regards the great business combinations which derive 
a portion of their importance from the existence of some monopolistic 
tendency. The right should be exercised with caution and self- 
restraint; but it should exist, so that it may be invoked if the need 
arises." 

In these few words we have the keynote of much of Roosevelt's 
Presidential career. Throughout his nearly eight years of office he 
hammered away at the monopolies that had arisen in the land, and to 
some degree succeeded in fettering them. 

A strong advocate of America for Americans, this is what he had 
to say about the Monroe Doctrine : 

"This is the attitude we should take as regards the Monroe Doc- 
trine. There is not the least need of blustering about it. Still less 
should it be used as a pretext for our own aggrandizement at the 
expense of any other American state. But, most emphatically, we 
must make it evident that we intend on this point ever to maintain the 



66 UN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 

old American position. The Monroe Doctrine is not international law, 
but there is no necessity that it should be. All that is needful is that 
it should continue to be a cardinal feature of American policy on this 
continent. If we are wise we shall strenuously insist that under no 
pretext whatever shall there be any territorial aggrandizement upon 
American soil by any European power, and this no matter what form 
the territorial aggrandizement may take." 

These extracts serve not alone to indicate President Roosevelt's 
attitude in certain particulars; they serve also to give some conception 
of his oratorical manner. Fluent as he has shown himself as a speech- 
maker, he has the faculty of dealing mainly with hard facts. It is the 
same with his messages to Congress. Some of them have been so 
expanded that he seemed rather writing a book than a message. But 
his seeming wordiness came from a desire to omit no matter of national 
interest and to leave none without a comprehensive treatment. Yet 
in them all he hammers away with hard facts. Flowery language and 
inconclusive verbosity have no place in his category. 

During Roosevelt's first term in office he did little in the way of 
proposing radical legislation. He felt that his hands were tied in that 
respect by the way into which he came into the Presidency. But he 
showed his untrammeled character in a dozen other ways. Precedents 
had no sacredness for him; he was always breaking them. One 
instance was that in which he invited Booker Washington to dinner. 
The event raised a stir out of all accordance with its significance, for 
Roosevelt was not the first President to have a colored man at his 
table, and Booker Washington had shown himself a man whose 
presence at their tables would honor kings. The storm broke and the 
thunders of denunciation rolled, but they passed innocuously over 
Roosevelt's head. 

He never hesitated to step outside the lines of routine and break 
through the cobvvebs of red tape. When a coal strike broke out in 
Pennsylvania and went on with such obstinacy as to threaten disaster 
to the people he stepped resolutely into the breach and by his influence 
settled the labor war. The sticklers for precedent cried out in dismay. 
No President has done such a thing before ! It is a dangerous stretch 
of the executive power! But those citizens whose fires threatened to 



m THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 67 

go out in midwinter for want of coal had nothing but praise for this 
salutary interference. 

When the Republic of Colombia refused to sustain the action for 
the building of the Panama Canal and the State of Panama seceded in 
consequence and proclaimed its independence, President Roosevelt 
with what seemed unnecessary haste recognized the new republic and 
proceeded to negotiate with it instead of Colombia. Plis impatience 
in this instance seemed to run away with his judgment, for a little 
delay would not have stood in the way of getting what he desired. 

In November, 1906, his interest in the progress of the canal took 
him in person to Panama. Here was a flagrant violation of another 
precedent. No President before him had ever gone beyond the juris- 
diction of the flag. But Roosevelt lost no sleep in consequence; he saw 
Vvhat he wanted to see, and the solar system sufi^ered no disruption. 

What else did he do? During the three and a half years of his 
first administration the country owed several important executive acts 
to him. In addition to settling the anthracite coal strike and recog- 
nizing Panama, lie prosecuted the Northern Securities Company for 
violating the anti-trust law; he established reciprocity with Cuba; he 
created the new Department of Commerce and Labor ; he founded the 
permanent census ; he reorganized the army ; he strengthened the navy ; 
he advocated tlie national irrigation act which is reclaiming vast arid 
tracts to cultivation; he submitted the Venezuela Imbroglio to The 
Hague Court of Arbitration; he sent America's protest against the 
Kishenev massacre to the Czar of Russia. 

The way the latter was done was an apt illustration of the Roose- 
velt method of doing things. Pie well knev/ that if the petition was 
sent to the Czar in the usual way he would not receive it and his gov- 
ernment would probably hint that this country had better attend to its 
own business. 

Roosevelt cut the Gordian knot in a different way. He tele- 
graphed the whole petition to the American Ambassador at St. Peters- 
burg, bidding him to lay it before the Czar and ask him if he would 
receive such a petition if it came regularly before him. The Czar 
politely replied that he would not. But in spite of diplomacy he had 
received it and read it, and in this way he learned something of what 



68 m THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 

was going on in his dominions. Salutary results soon followed from the 
Roosevelt diplomacy. 

We have told some of the things for which President Roosevelt 
stood sponsor. They were not all. His activity was enormous. He 
not only stood for the best things, but he worked and fought for them, 
and in some instances stood the test of making powerful enemies in 
order to secure them. The faculty of persistence in him was strongly 
developed. The word "strenuous," which he has bound up with his 
own name, aptly illustrates his character. His was a true example of 
the "strenuous life." There was always "something doing" in his 
neighborhood, and always will be while he breathes- the breath of life. 
The Roosevelt doctrine of a "square deal," the enforcement of the laws 
and statutes of the United States, and the upholding of the dignity and 
integrity of the nation were ever the keynotes of his administration. 



CHAPTER IX 

Fearless Champion of the Right and Maker of 
*Teace With Honor'' 

GIT-THAR ROOSEVELT" is a familiar cowboy designation 
of our late President, and it is one that well fits. All his 
life he has been "gittin' thar." Abihty and impetuosity 
have carried him headlong forward from one position to another in the 
public service, his rare vacations from political labor being those of 
his ranch and hunting life in the Wild West, and of his active career 
as a soldier. These were his recreations, his intervals of holiday 
enjoyment. As for resting — the man cannot do it ; it is not in him. 

He has got the posts he wanted throughout his life ; and got one 
post he did not want, that of Vice-President. It is one that would 
appeal to the ambition of most of us, but it was a restful post, and 
Roosevelt was not hankering after rest. Yet by a strange dispensa- 
tion of Providence it lifted him to the very summit of an American 
political career; it made him President. 

He would not have been human if he had not felt a sense of 
triumph over those plotting politicians who had fairly forced him into 
the Vice-Presidential office, fancying in their shrewd souls that they 
had the inconvenient reformer shelved. Fate had broken the threads 
which bound down this modern Gulliver and set him free to carry his 
ideas to their highest ultimate. 

Yet that he was satisfied cannot be said. It was a bitter and 
sorrowful reflection that he had reached this high office over the slain 
body of his lamented predecessor, the loved and lovable McKinley. 
He would ten thousand times rather have spent his four years as 
voiceless chairman of the Senate than to be made President through 
the assassination of a dear and cherished friend. 

Nor was it altogether pleasant to feel that chance, not the act of 
his fellow-citizens, had lifted him to this high office. Did they want 
him? Was he not in some sense an interloper? That could only be 

(69) 



?o REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 

told when they had the opportunity to express their real sentiment, 
and he must have looked forward with some hope and some anxiety 
to the election of 1904, to learn if the people really approved him, or 
if they merely waited their opportimity to shelve him effectually. 

If he really had any doubt in this direction, it was dispelled when 
the time came to act. The enthusiastic nomination which he received 
was enough to show that he was by all odds the first choice of the 
Republican party. And when the vote of the people was cast it became 
evident that he was the first choice of all parties, that the magic of 
his name had swept hosts of converts from the Democratic ranks. 
This was shown by his immense plurality in the popular vote of over 
2,500,000, far the greatest that any President had ever received, and 
his large Electoral College majority of 196. Evidently the people at 
large wanted Roosevelt, and it remained for him to justify their faith 
in him. 

That we are correct in Crediting him with a strong desire for 
election to the Presidency we may quote his own words to show. This 
he has said : 

'T do not believe in playing the hypocrite. Any strong man fit 
to be President would desire a nomination and re-election after his 
first term. Lincoln v/as President in so great a crisis that perhaps he 
neither could nor did feel any personal interest in his own re-election. 
But at present I should like to be elected President just as John Ouincy 
Adams, or McKinley, or Cleveland, or John Adams, or Washington 
himself desired to be elected. It is pleasant to think that one's country- 
men think well of one. But I shall not do anything whatever to secure 
my nomination save to try to carry on the public business In such 
shape that decent citizens will believe I have shown wisdom, integrity 
and courage." 

On the 4th of March, 1905, this favorite of the American people, 
for in the highest sense he was that, was inaugurated President of the 
United vStates. Pie was now a man unhampered, except by the plat- 
form of the Convention, and that was broad enough to carry out all 
the reforms in which he felt an interest. No purpose of running for 
anollier term trammeled him. He had cut the bridges in that direction 
behind him by announcing positively that he had no such intention. 



REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 71' 

There were some not ready to believe him, even when m December, 
1907, he reiterated his determination not to rnn for a third term. It 
was not until 1908, when he absolutely refused a nomination, that all 
the people felt that he meant just what he said. 

He might justly for other reasons have declined a re-election, for 
the Presidency for him had been no bed of roses. He had worked to 
win his aims with all the strength of his strong character and was 
justified in looking forward for a period of reprieve — not exactly of 
rest, but of occupation not quite so nerve-straining. 

During this term of office the President worked strenuously for 
the reform legislation he had at heart. 1 hat he got all he wanted 
cannot be said, for Congress was hard to handle, but he gained enough 
to make the path easier for later reformers. Chief among his victories 
over intrenched privilege was that of the Anti-Rebate Law, which 
forced the railroads to come out into the open and to desist from the 
unfair practices which they had so long maintained. Another was 
the pure food law, to save the people from being poisoned by villainous 
purveyors, and the law against the sale of unclean meats. Other acts 
sustained by him were those to protect the forest reserves and national 
parks, to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
and to prevent corporations from making contributions to election 
expenses. 

The old soldiers, especially the veterans of the Civil War, for 
whom he had a warm place in his heart, felt the benefit of his sympathy 
in the General Service Pension Act, which gave to each of them, 
whether injured or not, a liberal pension after he had reached his 
sixty-second year. In 1906 he made a speech advocating an inherit- 
ance tax, a measure of which his successor, President Taft, is strongly 
in favor. 

All this was matter which brought him under the limelight of 
tlie people of his country. In 1905 he brought himself under the lime- 
light of the world, when he appealed to Japan and Russia to bring to 
an end their desolating war by negotiating a treaty of peace. The 
offer took hold. Both parties to the conflict were glad enough to see 
this hand stretched out to them across the two great oceans, bearing the 
olive branch of peace. While Europe dallied find delayed, America 



72 REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 

had acted, and Roosevelt's suggestion bore its legitimate fruit in the 
Portsmouth Peace Treaty of September 5, 1905. 

In 1904 President Roosevelt had taken steps to have a second 
Peace Conference held at the Hague. His merits as a peacemaker 
were now sounded from end to end of the earth, and his success was 
fully recognized in 1906, when there was awarded' to him the Nobel 
Peace Prize, annually given to the one who had done the most in bring- 
ing about peaceful relations among the nations of the earth. 

We are not attempting here more than a passing glance at Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's activities during his term of office. There is one 
more of them of which we must speak. In May, 1908, there was held 
in the White House, at his suggestion, a conference of the governors 
of all the states and territories to consider the highly important sub- 
ject of how best to conserve the natural resources of this country. 

These were disappearing at an alarming rate. The forests were 
being destroyed by wasteful methods of lumbering and by devastating 
fires. The coal supply was being wastefully handled. Ignorance and 
greed were exhausting the fisheries. The soil was being washed away 
through the removal of its natural covering and the beds of streams 
were being filled up with it. This and other things needed wise and 
honest treatment and the conference led to the formation of a National 
Conservation Commission to take these matters in hand. 

Such were some of President Roosevelt's multitudinous activities 
and their results. Now let us say something of the man himself. If 
we come to investigate the manner of his life we can but say that there 
was never a more thorough democrat. The bane of aristocratic pride 
had never infected his blood. All men, whatever their station, were 
alike to him. He had but one criterion of respect. Is the man honest; 
is he taking his due part in the work of life? He would grasp the 
grimy hand of the railroad engineer with much more comradeship than 
that of the pampered scion of wealth. In traveling he preferred the 
cowcatcher of the locomotive, with its sweeping outlook, to the most 
comfortable palace car seat. The word strenuous, of which he made 
so much use and which so aptly fitted him, was first made his slogan in 
his speech at the Hamilton Club of Chicago in 1899. Here is the 
sentence which contained his dogma of the "strenuous life" : 



REFORMER AND PEACEMAKEK 73 

"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the 
doctrine of the strenuous Hfe, the hfe of toil and effort, of labor and 
strife ; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the 
man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink 
from danger, from hardships, or from bitter toil, and who out of these 
wins the splendid ultimate triumph." 

It was the kind of life that Roosevelt loved. He was strenuous 
in everything, in his executive acts, his legislative demands, his exer- 
cises and pleasures, his walks and rides. An amusing example of his 
strenuosity in this direction is that long walk in which he led a party 
of army officers through a broken country, wading streams, climbing 
and descending hills, facing all sorts of difficulties, until they were 
utterly worn out, while their leader showed no trace of weariness^ 

Rooseveh, in addition to his Presidential term, had another life; 
that home life which all of us possess in some measure and which he 
thoroughly enjoyed. The society of his wife and children was more 
to him than all the stately show and empty adulation of his official 
position. His home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, is a place of great 
attraction and one which any man might well enjoy. Standing on the 
crest of a little hill and approached by a steep and winding roadway, 
part of which runs through a thick wood, it presents a picturesque 
aspect when first seen. From it appears a beautiful view in every 
direction, and especially that over the waters of the Sound, Shade 
trees of many kinds stud the lawn and a broad porch runr, around three 
sides of the house, shaded in front by a luxuriant Virginia creeper. 
Vv'ithin, the house is beautifully furnished, and in nearly every room 
are trophies of the hunter's life on the Western plains or mementos 
of the soldier's life on Cuban soil. President, or Governor, or Colonel, 
or Commissioner Roosevelt, or whatever we may call him, is never so 
happy as when sitting quietly at home with his wife and children. 
Home is to him the dearest place on earth, and he never suffers the 
cares that fall upon him thickly without to invade its hallowed pre- 
cincts. Here he finds his one place of rest, of that relaxation of which 
he permits himself so little. With his wife — a woman of beauty and 
charm, one able to keep pace with him in his outdoor walks — his 
daughter Alice, the child of his first wife, and his five other children^ 
c 



M REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 

Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald and Quentin, with all of whom 
he has held years of companionship, his home life is a delightful one. 

Here are an abundance of the books that he loves and to which 
he has found time to add a goodly number of his own writing, descrip- 
tions of outdoor and hunting life, biographies and histories, especially 
his "Winning the West," his most ambitious work, devoted to the 
history of that great section of our land. 

Such is the home and home life of that great-souled, clean-lived, 
impulsive, energetic, enthusiastic lover of his kind — the honest and 
straightforward kind — the man who for years has battled fraud and 
corruption, with none of their mire clinging to him, the man of such 
broad aspirations and success-compelling genius that he has won the 
admiration, not only of his country, but of the world. 

We have already stated how, at the end of his first term of elective 
Presidency, he refused a renomination, not for rest, for the chief object 
he then had in view was to seek the wilds of Africa, and take his part 
in the hunting of big game such as America has none to match, 



BOOK TWO 



THE ROOSEVELT POLICIES 

B?ittles That Theodore Roosevelt Has Waged and the 
Principles He Stands For 



(75) 



CHAPTER X. 

Good Citizenship and a Square Deal for All Men 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT is a man of many policies, yet 
which really form one policy : many when we consider the 
great variety of interests to which he has devoted himself ; 
one when we consider the principle that underlies them all, that of 
a square deal for all men, rich and poor alike, of good citizenship and 
good conduct; with stringent control of all who are seeking their 
personal gain at the expense of the public good. 

There are policies and policies; policies tending toward evil, 
policies devoted to good; the policy of the brigand, whether in 
defiance of or under cover of the law; the policy of the honest and 
progressive citizen and statesman, who has in mind the best good of 
his fellows, of his country, of the world. Are there any who doubt 
that the latter is the policy of Theodore Roosevelt? He certainly 
has given abundant evidence throughout his whole career of integrity 
and good intent. That impulse has led him into errors must be 
granted. He is a strenuous, imperative, warm-blooded, hard-hitting 
warrior ; one who wants to redeem the world and to do so off hand ; 
who is impatient of delay and chafes against opposition ; but who has 
won the love of his countrymen and the admiration of the world by 
his unyielding integrity and ceaseless insistence in the fight against 
wrong-doing, and to-day stands in the enviable position of the most 
admired and respected citizen of the world. A democrat in grain, 
a hater of fraud on principle, a stout-hearted and strong-handed 
battler for the right, it is not surprising that his fame has spread from 
his country over the earth and that the nations have hailed him as 
a new evangel in the realm of good government and uplifting reform. 

"The place he holds in the minds of the people is so phenomenal 
that we are apt to attribute it to mysterious causes. Upon the sur- 
face, it seems a phase of hero worship so unusual and exaggerated as 

(77) 



78 GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL MEN 

to appear a craze, a hysteria unworthy of a thoughtful people. And 
so, many marvel and see something almost supernatural about it and 
are unable to offer any explanation, except that Roosevelt lives and 
moves under a lucky star. But the real explanation is simple. The 
trusting affection which the people have for Theodore Roosevelt is 
the inevitable consequence of his efficient and courageous fight for 
public morality, commercial probity, equal opportunity and con- 
servation both of human rights and the public domain. 

"Roosevelt is not a superman. He has unnecessarily made 
enemies. His honest errors would have doomed the career of any 
other living public man. But the people have seemed to love him 
better for the mistakes and the enemies he has made. He has 
taught the American people as no other man could teach them, the 
lesson of the hour. 

"That lesson is, that this young nation is just entering upon the 
third and most critical period of its material progress. 

"The era of exploration and discovery was followed by one of 
development and expansion, during which our growth placed us 
among the foremost world powers. But that growth was attained 
in spite of prodigal expenditure of natural resources, now dangerously 
nearing depletion, and careless toleration of civic, economic and 
social wrongs that represent, at best, the wicked folly of the spend- 
thrift, and at worst, the crime of the brigand or the murderer. 

"The broadening consciousness of these truths marks the opening 
of the new epoch, the start of the war against waste, the opening of 
the battle to conserve and replenish our intrinsic wealth, inanimate 
and human. And it is because Roosevelt has been the preacher of 
that crusade, the creed of which is not the possession of any party, 
any more than patriotism or morality, that the American people call 
him the foremost American. ' '* 

As above stated, the Roosevelt policy is a multiplicity of policies, 
which can only be properly dealt with by dividing the most important 
of them into a series of chapters and treating them separately. But 
underlying them all, the foundation upon which the whole edifice is 



* The North American, Philadelphia, April 20, 1910. 



GOOD CrnZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL a 'EN 79 

built, has been his strenuous advocacy of good citizenship and a 
square deal for all men and it is this basic principle of true statesman- 
ship which logically comes first in our inquiry. 

There are two ways of dealing with this subject. One is that of 
speaking for Mr. Roosevelt. The other is that of letting him speak 
for himself. The latter would not be the best in many cases, for 
there are many men who are excellent phrase makers; who can 
express the most admirable thoughts in the choicest words; but 
whose conduct is far from fitting with their words. It is the best in 
Roosevelt's case. Ready orator as he is, he has the reputation of 
saying just what he means and of living squarely up to his utterances. 
And he has the faculty of expressing himself so neatly and fittingly 
that it would not be easy to better his words. We therefore propose 
to put him on record and in these chapters to let him for the most part 
speak for himself, being assured that when he speaks his words will 
represent truly what he thinks. 

What is a good citizen as he views him. Here is his answer, as 
given in an address delivered at Syracuse, N. Y., September 7, 1903 : 

"The good citizen is the man who, whatever his wealth or his 
poverty, strives manfully to do his duty to himself, to his family, to 
his neighbor, to the State; who is incapable of the baseness which 
manifests itself either in arrogance or in envy, but who, while demand- 
ing justice for himself, is no less scrupulous to do justice to others. 
It is because the average American citizen, rich or poor, is of just 
this type that we have cause for our profound faith in the future of 
the Republic. 

" The line of cleavage between good and bad citizenship lies, not 
between the man of wealth who acts squarely by his fellows and the 
man who seeks each day's wage by that day's work, wronging no one 
and doing his duty by his neighbor ; nor yet does this line of cleavage 
divide the unscrupulous wealthy man who exploits others in his own 
interest, from the demagogue, or from the sullen and envious being 
who wishes to attack all men of property, whether they do well or ill. 
On the contrary, the line of cleavage between good citizenship and 
bad citizenship separates the rich man who does well from the rich 
man who does ill, the poor man of good conduct from the poor man 



8o GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL MEN 

of bad conduct. This line of cleavage lies at right angles to any such 
arbitrary line of division as that separating one class from another, 
one locality from another, or men with a certain degree of property 
from those of a less degree of property. 

This is a clear and definite expression of his views on the subject, 
one which he has frequently reiterated, in varied language, but 
always to the same effect, hammering the idea into the public mind 
until the nail has sunk to the very head. Here is a further aspect of 
the case, from a Fourth of July address in 1906 at his homie at Oyster 
Bay, N. Y. : 

" We citizens of these peaceful days need first and forem.ost the 
mioral quality; and next, back of that moral quality, the courage, 
moral and physical as well, that makes the moral quality count. Yet 
these qvtalities by them.selves are not enough. The greatest patriot- 
ism and the greatest courage can be hopelessly marred by folly. 
None of you are worth anything as citizens, none of you can be worth 
anything as citizens, if you have not the fund of moral qualities 
which find expression in love of country, love of neighbors, love of 
homiC, which make you honest, decent, clean-living, right thinking. 
And back of them and in addition to them we must have the sanity, 
the common sense, the just judgment, which neither hysterically 
emphasizes nor blindly refuses to acknowledge the wrongs that exist 
and the ways in which those wrongs must be cured. 

He returns to this subject from a different point of view, in his 
m.essage to Congress on December 3, 1906. Mischief makers are his 
detestation and he scores them deeply : 

" In dealing with both labor and capital and the questions 
affecting both corporations and trade unions, there is one matter 
more important to remember than aught else, and that is the infinite 
harm done by preachers of mere discontent. These are the men who 
seek to excite a violent class hatred against all men of wealth. They 
seek to turn wise and proper movements for the better control of 
corporations and for doing away with the abuses connected with 
wealth into a campaign of hysterical excitement and falsehood in 
which the aim is to inflame to madness the brutal passions cf man- 
kind 




Photo hy Geo. Gmntham P.nin 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT— VICE-PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS 




Photo hy Geo. Grantham Bain 

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY— VICE-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 




Copyright iy Underwood d Underwood, N. Y. 

IN A GIANT DREDGE AT PANAMA 

When making his thorough ' inspection of the great Panama Canal work, President 
Roosevelt iQst po detail oJ the stupendous undertaklna. 



GOOL CITIZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL MEN 8i 

"The plain people who think — the mechanics, farmers, mer- 
chants, workers with head or hand, the men to whom American 
traditions are dear, who love their comitry and try to act decently 
by their neighbors — owe it to themselves to rem.ember that the most 
damaging blow that can be given popular government is to elect an 
unworthy and sinister agitator on a platform of violence and hypoc- 
risy. Whenever such an issue is raised in this country, nothing can 
be gained by flinching from it, for in such case democracy itself is on 
trial, popular self-government under republican forms is on trial." 
Such are some aspects of the problem of good citizenship, as so 
frequently insisted on by Mr. Roosevelt, it being a subject to which 
he returns again and again. And justly so, since it underlies all for 
which he- stands and for which he strives. The foundation must be 
sound if the house is to stand firm. And closely related to it is his 
frequently repeated demand for a square deal for all, rich and poor 
alike. Here are his words on the subject, spoken at a banquet at 
Dallas, Texas, April 5, 1905: 

"When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and 
nobody that speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible 
to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any 
man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, 
that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in 
the dealing. In other words, it is not in the power of any human 
being to devise legislation or administration by which each man 
shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the 
power of any man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, 
distrust him as a quack. ... All any of us can pretend to do is 
to come as near as our imperfect abilities will allow to securing 
through governmental agencies an equal opportunity for each man 
to show the stuff that is in him ; and that must be done with no more 
intention of discrimination against the rich man than the poor man, or 
against the poor man than the rich man ; with the intention of safe- 
guarding every man, rich or poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and 
giving him as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what his 
powers permit him to do; always provided he does not wrong his 
neighbor. ' ' 



82 GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL MEN 

This view he reiterates in other addresses : 

"When I say a square deal I mean a square deal; exaofely as 
much a square deal for the rich man as for the poor man; but no 
more. Let each stand on his merits, receive what is due him, and be 
judged according to his deserts. To more he is not entitled, and less 
he shall not have. 

" This Government was formed with, as its basic idea, the prin- 
ciple of treating each man on his worth as a man, of paying no heed 
to whether he was rich or poor, no heed to his creed or social stand- 
ing, but only to the way in which he performed his duty to himself, 
to his neighbor, to the State. From this principle we cannot afford 
to vary by so much as a hand's breadth. " 

In these views he did not suffer himself to distinguish between 
black and white, any more than between rich and poor. He fully 
recognized the rights of the black to a square deal in the land of 
which he had been made a citizen and did not hesitate to honor 
worth in the one race as fully as in the other. He invited Booker 
Washington to dine with him as freely as he would have invited a 
white man of equal standing in citizenship, and appointed blacks of 
suitable ability to office and kept them there despite reprobation or 
threats. In this he was living up to his own theory. We may quote 
from his address before the Republican Club of New York, February 

" The only safe principle upon which Americans can act is that 
of 'all men up,' not that of 'some men down.' If in any community 
the level of intelligence, morality and thrift among the colored men 
can be raised, it is, humanly speaking, sure that the same level 
among the whites will be raised to an even higher degree ; and it is 
no less sure that the debasement of the blacks will in the end carry 
with it an attendant debasement of the whites. . . . 

" The ideal of elemental justice meted out to every man is the 
ideal we should keep ever before us. . . . In the first place, it is 
true of the colored man, as it is true of the white man, that in the 
long run his fate must depend much more upon his own efforts than 
upon the efforts of any outside friend. Every vicious, venal or igno- 
rant colored man is an even greater foe to his own race than to the 



GOOD CITIZENSHIP AND A SQUARE DEAL FOR ALL MEN 83 

community as a whole. The colored man's self-respect entitles hiin 
to do that share in the political work of the country which is war- 
ranted by his individual ability and integrity and the position he 
has won for himself. But the prime requisite of the race is moral, 
and industrial uplifting. ' ' 



CHAPTER XL 

Controlling the Corporations and Advancing the 
Reign of Law Over That of Force and Fraud 

WHEN Theodore Roosevelt came into office as President of the 
United States the time had arrived for a man exceptionally 
strong, earnest and energetic in character to be placed at the 
head of affairs. Changes had taken place with extraordinary rapidity 
in business methods, great and unscrupulous corporations had risen 
and spread until their proportions were enormous while their probity 
in many cases was highly questionable ; the steam motor of business, 
instead of climbing slowly up the hill of legitimate development, was 
plunging headlong down a slope of fraud and double-dealing, at the 
bottom of which lay public ruin and national disgrace. A man was 
wanting capable of putting on the brakes and checking this mad 
descent, and Theodore Roosevelt was the man. As the young 
Napoleon put an end to anarchy in France by training shotted guns 
on the mob marching on the National Convention, so Roosevelt 
trained shotted guns on the marching hordes of the corporations to 
bi ing them similarly under the control of law and justice. 

When our National Constitution was adopted, at the close of the 
eighteenth century, no human wisdom could have foreseen the 
stupendous changes that would take place in business methods and 
in capitalistic enterprise by the opening of the twentieth century. 
In consequence, no provision for such changes could be made in the 
organic law of the nation. It was then taken for granted that the 
States could easily control corporate business and that this lay out- 
side the function of the national government. But business of this 
kind has long since spread beyond State borders and become national 
in scope and has adopted methods of operation that render it urgently 
necessary to bring it under national control. Small business con- 
cerns have been crowded out of existence by the gi-eed of their huge 

(84) 



CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 85 

competitors and honest competition seems coming to an end. The 
railroads, which in turn have become great corporations, have 
fostered other corporations by the aid of unfair discrimination in 
rates and the giving of secret and fraudulent rebates. Unjust and 
oppressive methods have been adopted to stifle small business con- 
cerns. Rank fraud has bristled almost unopposed. A St. George 
was needed to strike down the dragon of brigandism in business and 
the twentieth century had just dawned when the time and the man 
came. 

The assassination of President McKinley brought Vice-President 
Roosevelt to the head of affairs in September, 1901 , and the first lance 
against the dragon was flung in his message to Congress in the follow- 
ing December. He spoke then with statesmanlike mildness, but he 
evidently meant business. These were his words : 

" There is a widespread conviction in the minds of the American 
people that the great corporations known as trusts are in certain of 
their features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare. This 
springs from no spirit of envy or uncharitableness, nor lack of pride 
in the great industrial achievements that have placed this country at 
the head of the nations struggling for commercial supremacy. It 
does not rest upon a lack of intelligent appreciation of the necessity 
of meeting changing and changed conditions of trade with new 
methods, nor upon ignorance of the fact that combination of capital 
in the effort to accomplish great things is necessary when the world's 
progress demands that great things be done. It is based upon sincere 
conviction that combination and concentration should be, not pro- 
hibited, but supervised and within reasonable limits controlled; and 
in my judgment this conviction is right. 

" It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract 
to require that when men receive from Government the privilege of 
doing business under corporate form, which frees them from indi- 
vidual responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises 
the capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful 
representations as to the value of the property in which the capital 
is to be invested. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce 
should be regulated if they are found to exercise a license working 



86 CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 

to the public injury. It should be as much the aim of those who 
seek for social betterment to rid the business world of crimes of 
cunning as to rid the entire body politic of crimes of violence. Great 
corporations exist only because they are created and safe-guarded 
by our institutions ; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see 
that they work in harmony with these institutions. 

The warfare against the oppressive methods of the trusts thus 
inaugurated was continued throughout Roosevelt's administration. 
Every annual message alluded to it, with growing strength of appeal. 
It became a leading feature of the Roosevelt policy. Measures for 
the regulation and control of the trusts were prepared in the Execu- 
tive mansion and pressed upon Congress with the Rooseveltian 
strenuosity. Some were slaughtered; some were passed. Steps of 
importance were taken, progress was made, and the hand of the 
government was laid stringently upon the offending and defiant cor- 
porations. 

A railway rate bill was passed, forbidding under severe penalties 
the fraud of rebates. The beef -packing industry, which was charged 
with poisoning the people with food unfit for use, was called to a 
sharp account. A general pure-food law was passed, penalizing the 
act of adulteration and requiring that every article of medicine or 
food should be labeled and sold for just what it was. These and 
other enactments were in the right line. The rein was being slowly 
drawn and corporate fraud being gradually brought to a halt. 

But much remained to be done. The President's urgency was 
constantly checked by the sluggishness of Congress. Hostility 
ripened in the Congressional halls. It was far easier to frame laws 
than to get them passed. In his message to Congress of December, 
1906, President Roosevelt, after referring to the above mentioned 
acts of Congress, said : 

" It must not be supposed, however, that with the passage of 
these laws it will be possible to stop progress along the line of increas- 
ing the power of the National Government over the use of capital in 
interstate commerce. It can not too often be repeated that experi- 
ence has conclusively shown the impossibility of securing by the 
actions of nearly half a hundred different State legislatures anything 



CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 87 

but ineffective chaos in the way of deaHng with the great corpora- 
tions which do not operate exclusively within the limits of any one 
State. In some method, whether by a national license law or in 
other fashion, we must exercise, and that at an early date, a far more 
complete control than at present over these great corporations — 
a control that will among other things prevent the evils of excessive 
overcapitalization, and that will compel the disclosure by each big 
corporation of its stockholders and of its properties and business, 
whether owned directly or through subsidiary or affiliated corpora- 
tions. This will tend to put a stop to the securing of inordinate 
profits by favored individuals at the expense whether of the general 
public, the stockholders, or the wageworkers. Our effort should be 
not so much to prevent consolidation as such, but so to supervise and 
control it as to see that it results in no harm to the people. ' ' 

President Roosevelt continued to hammer away upon this sub- 
ject until the end of his executive career. In his messages to Congress 
and in addresses to the people he constantly recurred to it. It had 
got upon his nerves. The necessity of a new deal in the business 
methods of the nation was obvious and he made himself the apostle 
of the new mission. Not that the subject obtained complete control 
of his thought. His mind was too expansive for that. There were 
dozens of questions to deal with, of evils to be corrected. His quiver 
of arrows was full and he shot them in all directions. But he saw 
all around him interests grown too large to be kept within state 
boundaries, many of them national in scope, and he felt strongly that 
these had got far beyond State control and needed national super- 
vision. Here are some extracts from a speech made by him in St. 
Louis, October 2, 1907: 

" A hundred years ago there was, except the commerce which 
crawled along our seacoast and up and down our interior waterways, 
practically no interstate commerce. Now, by the railroad, the mails, 
the telegraph, and the telephone, an immense part of our commerce 
is interstate. By the transformation it has escaped from the power of 
the State and come under the power of the Nation. Therefore there 
has been a great practical change in the exercise of the national 
power, under the acts of Congress, over interstate commerce. . . I 



88 CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 

believe that the Nation has the whole governmental control over 
interstate commerce and the widest discretion in dealing with that 

subject 

"The chief economic question of the day in this country is to 
provide a sovereign for the great corporations engaged in interstate 
business ; that is, for the railroads and the interstate industrial cor- 
porations. At this moment our prime concern is with the railroads. 
When railroads were first built they were purely local in character. 
Their boundaries were not coextensive even with the boundaries of 
one State. They usually covered but two or three counties. All 
this is now changed. At present five great systems embody nearly 
four-fifths of the total mileage of the country. All the most import- 
ant railroads are no longer State roads, but instruments of interstate 
commerce. It is the Nation alone which can with wisdom, justice 
and effectiveness exercise over these interstate railroads the thor- 
ough and complete supervision which should be exercised 

" The railroads themselves have been exceedingly short-sighted 
in the rancorous bitterness which they have shown against the 
assumption by the Nation of this long-neglected power. Great capi- 
talists who pride themselves upon their extreme conservatism often 
believe they are acting in the interests of property when following a 
course so short-sighted as to be really an assault upon property. 
They have shown extreme unwisdom in their violent opposition to 
the assumption of complete control over the railroads by the Federal 
Government. The American people will not tolerate the happy-go- 
lucky system of no control over the great interstate railroads, with 
the insolvent and manifold abuses which have so generally accom- 
panied it. The control must exist somewhere; and unless it be by 
thorough-going and radical law placed upon the statute books of the 
Nation, it will be exercised in ever- increasing measure by the several 
States. ' ' 

Roosevelt's policy of "curbing the corporations" brotight fruit 
in various ways; one being in the passage of controlling and regu- 
lating laws; one in bringing into the courts certain corporations 
charged with persistently defying the laws ; one in the arousing of a 
volcanic opposition to the Administration measures. The President 's 



CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 89 

reply to these opponents and assailants was given in similarly vol- 
canic terms in a 1908 message to Congress. Some of his opponents 
had gone so far as to hint that he was insane, his mind obsessed by 
a delusion " that those who disagreed with and opposed him were 
criminals banded together in a conspiracy." Judge Gaynor of 
Brooklyn (now Mayor of New York) replied, " Theodore Roosevelt 
is safe and sane enough for the most of us." Here is Roosevelt's 
personal response to the assault upon his sanity : 

" The attacks by these great corporations on the Administra- 
tion's actions have been given a wide circulation throughout the 
country by those writers and speakers who, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, act as the representatives of predatory wealth, of the wealth 
accumulated upon a grand scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from 
the oppression of wage- workers to unfair and unwholesome methods 
of crushing out competition and to defrauding the public by stock- 
jobbing and the manipulation of securities 

" The apologists of successful dishonesty always declaim against 
any effort to punish or prevent it, on the ground that any such effort 
will 'unsettle business. ' It is they who by their acts have unsettled 

business The keynote of all these attacks upon the 

effort to secure honesty in business and in politics is well expressed 
in brazen protests against any effort for the moral regeneration of 
the business world, on the ground that it is unnatural, unwarranted 
and injurious, and that business panic is the necessary penalty for 
such effort to secure business honesty. The morality of such a plea 
is precisely as great as if made on behalf of the men caught in a 
gambling establishment when that gambling establishment is raided 
by the police 

" The methods by which the Standard Oil people and those 
engaged in the other com^binations of which I have spoken have 
achieved great fortunes, can only be justified by the advocacy of a 
system of morality which would also justify every form of criminality 
on the part of a labor union, and every form of violence, corruption, 
and fraud, from murder to bribery and ballot-box stuffing in politics. " 

Here is a different tone from that with which President Roose- 
velt opened the campaign in 1901. Evidently he had become " mad 



90 CONTROLLING THE CORPORATIONS 

through and through. ' ' He refers to the hard fighters of the Civil 
War and says: "Their spirit should be our spirit, as we strive to 
bring nearer the day when greed and trickery and cunning shall 
be trampled under foot by those who fight for the righteousness 
that exalteth a nation. ' ' And he expresses his final opinion in the 
finely optimistic words: "There is no nation so absolutely sure of 
ultimate success as ours." 

There is warrant for this optimism. On all sides the birds of 
prey are flying to cover. This phase of the Roosevelt pohcy has 
had its results in purifying the air of the business world and in 
aiding the moral uplift of the nation, and President Taft is still 
fighting on the same lines, with different weapons, but with hopeful 
indications of further success. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Relations of Capital and Labor and Arbitration of 

Labor Disputes. 

IN that advocacy of a square deal for all men, rich or poor, black 
or white, which ranks among the most constantly reiterated 

Roosevelt doctrines, the relations of capital and labor are 
deeply involved, and the interests of these great concerns of the com- 
munity find place in every annual message. While combinations of 
capital are recognized as inevitable, in the development of business 
conditions, combinations of labor are equally inevitable. The manu- 
facturing association and the labor union face each other like two 
armies, with weapons in one hand, olive branches in the other, ready 
to strike or to clasp hands as occasion demands, hostile to every show 
of injustice yet finding their best interests in amity, and usually 
ending each outbreak of war with a treaty of peace. 

President Roosevelt thus states the Gk)vernment's attitude to- 
wards this subject in his message to Congress of December, 1904: 

" The consistent policy of the National Government, so far as it 
has the power, is to hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether 
employer or employee; but to refuse to weaken individual initiative 
or to hamper or cramp the industrial development of the country. 
We recognize that this is an era of federation and combination, in 
which great capitalistic corporations and labor unions have become 
factors of tremendous importance in all industrial centers. Hearty 
recognition is given the far-reaching, beneficent work which has been 
accomplished through both corporations and unions, and the line 
as between different corporations, as between different unions, is 
drawn as it is between individuals; that is, it is drawn on conduct, the 
effort being to treat both organized capital and organized labor 
alike; asking nothing save that the interest of each shall be brought 
into harmony with the interest of the general public, and that the 

(91) 



92 



CAPITAL AND LABOR AND LABOR UNIONS 



conduct of each shall conform to the fundamental rules of obedi- 
ence to law, of individual freedom, and of justice and fair dealing 

towards all. 

"Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual 
disregards the law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous 
interferences with the rights of others, whether corporations or indi- 
viduals, then where the Federal Government has jurisdiction it will 
see to it that misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to 
the position or power of the corporation, the union or the individual, 
but only to one vital fact— that is, the question whether or not the 
conduct of the individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance 
with the law of the land. Every m.an must be guaranteed his liberty 
and his right to do as he likes with his property or his labor, so long 
as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. No man is above 
the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission 
when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded 
as a right ; not asked as a favor. We have cause as a nation to be 
thankful for the steps that have been so successfully taken to put 
these principles into effect. The progress has been by evolution, 
not by revolution. Nothing radical has been done ; the action has 
been both moderate and resolute. Therefore the work will stand. " 

In President Roosevelt's final message to Congress, that of 
December, 1908, he returns to this subject and gives his views in 
regard to the just care of the wage- worker in case he becomes injured 
or worn out as a result of his labor in any occupation. We quote his 

views : 

" Our present system, or rather no system, works dreadful wrong, 
and is of benefit to only one class of people— the lawyers. When a 
workman is injured what he needs is not an expensive and doubtful 
lawsuit, but the certainty of relief through immediate administrative 
action. The number of accidents which result in the death or crip- 
pling of wage-workers, in the Union at large, is simply appalling; 
in a very few years it runs up a total far in excess of the aggregate 
of the dead and wounded in any modern war. No academic theory 
about 'freedom of contract' or 'constitutional liberty to contract' 
should be permitted to interfere with this and similar movements. 



CAPITAL. AND LABuK AND LABOR UNIONS 93 

Progress in civilization has everyivhere meant a limitation and regula- 
tion of contract. 

" Pending a thorough-going investigation and action there is 
certain legislation which should be enacted at once. The law, passed 
at the last session of the Congress, granting compensation to certain 
classes of em-ployees of the Government, should be extended to include 
all employees of the Government and should be made more liljcral 
in its terms. There is no good ground for the distinction made in the 
law between those engaged in hazardous occupations and those 
not so engaged. If a man is injured or killed in any line of work, 
it was hazardous in his case. Whether i per cent, or 10 per cent, of 
those following a given occupation actually suffer injury or death 
ought not to have any bearing on the question of their receiving 
compensation. It is a grim logic which says to an injured employee 
or to the dependents of one killed that he or they are entitled to no 
comipensation because very few people other than he have been 
injured or killed in that occupation. Perhaps one of the most 
striking omissions in the law is that it does not embrace peace officers 
and others whose lives may be sacrificed in enforcing the laws of the 
United States. The terms of the act providing compensation should 
be m.ade more liberal than in the present act. A year's compensation 
is not adequate for a wage-earner's family in the event of his death 
by accident in the course of his employm.ent. And in the event of 
death occurring, say, ten or eleven months after the accident, the 
family would only receive as compensation the equivalent of one or 
two months' earnings. In this respect the generosity of the United 
States towards its employees compares most unfavorably with that 
of every country in Europe — even the poorest." 

" There is also, I think, ground for the belief that substantial in- 
justice is often suffered by employees in consequence of the custom of 
courts issuing temporary injunctions without notice to them, and 
punishing them for contempt of court in instances where, as a matter 
of fact, they have no knowledge of any proceedings. Outside (;f 
organized labor there is a widespread feeling that this system often 
works great injustice to wage-workers when their efforts to better their 
working condition result in industrial disputes. A temporary injunc- 



94 CAPITAL AMD LABOR AMD LABOR UmONS 

tion procured ex parte may as a matter of fact have all the effect of a 
permanent injunction in causing disaster to the wage- workers ' side 
in such a dispute. Organized labor is chafing under the unjust 
restraint which comes from repeated resort to this plan of procedure. 
Its discontent has been unwisely expressed, and often improperly 
expressed, but there is a sound basis for it, and the orderly and law- 
abiding people of a community would be in a far stronger position for 
upholding the courts if the undoubtedly existing abuses could be 
provided against. " 

Yet while deprecating any unfair use of the weapon of injunc- 
tion, he supports the injunction as a principle, saying in relation to it, 
in his message of December, 1905: 

" There has been demand for depriving courts of the power to 
issue injunctions in labor disputes. Such special limitation of the 
equity power of our courts would be most unwise. It is true that 
some judges have misused this power; but this does not justify a 
denial of the power any more than an improper exercise of the power 
to call a strike by a labor leader would justify the denial of the right 
to strike. The remedy is to regulate the procedure by requiring the 
judge to give due notice to the adverse parties before granting the 
writ." 

Elsewhere he puts himself on record in regard to labor unions: 
" I believe emphatically in organized labor. I believe in organizations 
of wage- workers. Organization is one of the laws of our social and 
economic development at this time. But I feel that we must always 
keep before our minds the fact that there is nothing sacred in the 
name itself. To call an organization an organization does not make 
it a good one. The worth of an organization depends upon its being 
handled with the courage, the skill, the wisdom, the spirit of fair 
dealing as between man and man, end with wise self-restraint. " 

We can most fitly illustrate Mr. Roosevelt's attitude towards 
the relations of labor and capital by stating his course in the case 
of the celebrated anthracite coal-miners' strike of 1902, one which 
affected the well-being of the people at large more than any other 
strike in the history of the country. 

The incidents of this strike will be remembered by all users of 



CAPITAL AND LABOR, AND LABOR UNIONS 95 

anthracite coal. Breaking out in the spring of 1902, it dragged on 
until the fall, with apparent hopelessness of settlement. The winter 
was at hand with its threat of biting and freezing chill. The stock of 
mined coal was growing perilously low. Its price rose from six to 
twelve and more dollars a ton and complete exhaustion by the time 
winter set in was justly feared. Intense suffering to great numbers of 
people was highly probable, but union and the operators continued 
obstinate, arbitration was contemned, conciliation seemed hopeless, 
and little or no consideration was given to the appeals of the coal- 
using community. 

The situation grew daily more serious. Something must be done, 
everybody said; but what could be done and who could do it? At 
this critical juncture President Roosevelt stepped into breach. He 
had no precedent to follow, but he was a man who made, not one who 
followed, precedents. From the West, where they burn soft coal, 
came counsel to let things alone. From the East came piteous ap- 
peals for instant and drastic action. Yet such action, in what many 
held to be a non- Presidential capacity, threatened serious political 
consequences. He considered the case fully, then set his face in his 
own grim manner and said: 

"Yes, I will do it. I suppose that ends me; but it is right, and 
I will do it." 

It was a strenuous fight he had before him, to bring together two 
bitterly hostile antagonists and force them to acknowledge that the 
people had rights as well as they. And at this time he was suffering 
from an accident in which his coach had been broken down, the driver 
killed and his leg seriously injured. 

But he had given his word and went into the fight, appointed a 
strike commission with Judge Gray, of Delaware, at its head and 
used all his powers and persuasions to bring the coal barons and the 
labor leaders to terms. He won. The strike was adjusted in some 
way or other — and the men went to work. But it took a hard pull. 
To the Governor of Massachusetts, who sent him "the thanks of 
every man, woman and child in the country," he wrote: 

"Yes, we have put it through. But, heavens and earth! it has 
beer a struggle. ' ' 



96 CAPITAL AND LABOR, AND LABOR UNIONS 

The London Times, looking upon the matter as a new expansion 
of the field of government, said: "In the most quiet and unob- 
trusive manner President Roosevelt has done a very big thing, and 
an entirely new thing." 

Did his interference affect President Roosevelt's political stand- 
ing, as had been feared ? Yes ; but fortunately the effect was entirely 
favorable. It made him far more friends than foes, and doubtless 
it had a large share in adding to the rain of ballots which fell in his 
favor in the election of 1904. 

There were those who said that President Roosevelt had sur- 
rendered the country to the overweening claims of organized labor ; 
yet a few months later, when striking miners in Arizona were using 
methods of violence against the property of the operators, he took 
the opposite course and sent troops in all haste to the protection of 
the threatened property. 

Here is an illustrative anecdote told by Jacob Riis, in his " Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, the Citizen." It shows the man in action. Roose- 
velt was then Police Commissioner in New York, the labor men had 
trouble with the police over their strikes; he saw that a misunder- 
standing existed and invited the labor leaders to talk the matter 
over with him. 

" The strike leaders thought they had to do with an ambitious 
politician and they tried bluster. They would do so and so unless 
the police were compliant; and they watched to get him placed. 
They had not long to wait. Roosevelt called a halt, short and sharp. 

" 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'we want to understand one another 
That was my object in coming here. Remember, please, that he 
who counsels violence does the cause of lal)or the poorest service. 
Also, he loses his case. Understand distinctly that order will be 
kept. The police will keep it. Now, gentlemen!' 

" There was a moment's amazed surprise and then the hall rang 
with their cheers. They had him placed then, for they knew a man 
when they saw hun. And he, — he went home proud and happy, for 
his trust in his fellow man was justified." 




Copfright fcjr CUmfiiimst 



JUMFINu A FOUR-KAIL FENCE 




(.\ ; ' : <. ^v PiciO'-i:.: Xna Co. 

ADDRESSING THE OFFICERS AND CREW OF THE •■CONNECTICUT- UPON THE 
RETURN OF THE FLEET 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Larger Good as Contrasted With the Demands 

of Expediency 

THE rule of expediency, the falling into line behind some passing 
demand, that does not seem for the best good of the people, 
has never been Theodore Roosevelt's way. Elowever stren- 
uously it might be urged, whatever marshalling of battalions lay 
behind it, he as strenuously held his own. "The larger good" has 
been one of his maxims. He has cared not a whit to win a record for 
consistency. What he may have done yesterday never controls him 
when the question arises as to what is the best thing to do to-day. 

In his campaign for the governorship of New York he pledged 
himself to rule by the Ten Commandments, and it has always been 
his aim to do the thing that is right, rather than the thing that is 
expedient. There are those whose eyes are fixed upon the ground 
a.nd who see only the passing steps. There are those who take a long 
look ahead, and see only the goal. Theodore Roosevelt is one of the 
latter. And always in his goal " the larger good" looms up. 

But he knows man and his limitations. One man cannot always 
sway a multitude. If we cannot get what we want, the next best 
thing is to get the most we can attain and by the n-iost available 
means, so that they be honest means. This is a phase cf the Roose- 
velt policy. 

" Hitch your wagon to a star, " he says, " but always remember 
your limitations. Strive upward, but realize that your feet must 
touch the ground. In our Government you can work successfully 
only in conjunction with your fellov/s. ' ' 

Let us quote some words of his from an address delivered in 
Wheeling, W. Va., September 6, 1903. They bear upon this ques- 
tion. 
7 (97) 



98 THE LARGER GOOD CONSTRASTED WITH EXPEDIENCY 

" I think we must set before ourselves the desire not to accept 
less than the possible, and at the same time not to bring ourselves 
to a complete standstill by attempting the impossible. It is a good 
deal as it is in taking care through the engineers of the lower Missis- 
sippi River. No one can dam the Mississippi. If the nation started 
to dam it, the nation would waste its time. It would not hurt the 
Mississippi, but it would not only throw away its own means, but 
would incidentally damage the population along the banks. You 
can't dam the current. You can build levees to keep the current 
within bounds and to shape its direction. I think that is exactly 
what we can do in connection with these great corporations known 
as trusts. You can not put a stop to or reverse the industrial ten- 
dencies of the age, but you can control and regulate them and see that 
they do no harm. 

"A flood comes down the Mississippi — you cannot stop it. If 
you tried to build a dam across it, it would not hurt the flood and 
it would not benefit you. You can guide it between levees so as to 
prevent its doing injury and so as to insure its doing good. Another 
thing; you don't build those levees in a day or in a month. A man 
who told you that he had a patent device by which in sixty days 
he would solve the question of the floods along the lower Mississippi 
would not be a wise man; but he would be a perfect miracle of 
wisdom compared to the man who tells you that by any one patent 
remedy he can bring the millennium in our industrial and social 
affairs. ' ' 

Here is his rule — to work for what he can get, with the under- 
standing that what he seeks is at least a step in advance. But he 
tells us that we must set to work in a manner as far removed as 
possible from hysteria, in a spirit of sober determination not to sub- 
mit to "wrong and not to wrong others. It is not wise to make 
promises that will stir up the enthusiastic, but which no man can 
keep. Measure your end by your means, — with the proviso that your 
end be in the right direction. We climb mountains, not by leaps, 
but step by step. 

Here is what he has to say, and wisely so, about class distinctions. 
It probably would not stand muster across the waters, but it is first- 



THE LARGER GOOD CON ST R AST ED WITH EXPEDIENCY 



99 



class Americanism and true modernism and Rooseveltism. It is 
from an address made in Syracuse, N. Y., in September, 1903. 

" We can keep our government on a sane and healthy basis and 
keep our social system what it should be, only on condition of judg- 
ing each man, not as a member of a class, but on his worth as a man. 
It is an infamous thing in our American life, and fundamentally 
treacherous to our institutions, to apply to any man any test save 
that of his personal worth, or to draw between two sets of men any 
distinction save the distinction of conduct, the distinction that 
marks off those who do well and wisely from those who do ill or fool- 
ishly. There are good citizens and bad citizens in every class as in 
every locality, and the attitude of decent people towards great public 
and social questions should be determined, not by the accidental 
question of employment or locality, but by those deep-set principles 
which represent the innermost souls of men. A healthy republican 
government must rest upon individuals, not upon classes or sections. 
As soon as it becomes government by a class or by a section it departs 
from the old American ideal. ' ' 

We may quote another saying of his in this direction, one of 
which no thinking man can question the wisdom and justice : 

" No man is happy if he does not work. Of all miserable creat- 
ures the idler, in whatever rank of society, is in the long run the most 
miserable. If a man does not work, if he has not in him not merely 
the capacity for work but the desire for work, then nothing can be 
done with him. He is out of place in our community. We have in 
our scheme of government no room for the man who does not wish 
to pay his way through life by what he does for himself and for the 
community. If he has leisure which makes it unnecessary for him 
to devote his time to earning his daily bread, then all the more he is 
bound to work just as hard in some way that will make the com- 
munity the better off for his existence. If he fails in that, he fails to 
justify his existence. Work, the capacity for work, is absolutely 
necessary; and no man's life is full, no man can be said to live in the 
true sense of the word, if he does not work. This is necessary; and 
yet it is not enough. If a man is utterly selfish, if utterly disregardful 
of the rights of others, if he has no ideals, if he works simply for the 



loo THE LARGER GOOD CONSTRASTED WITH EXPEDIENCY 

sake of ministering to his own base passions, if he works simply to 
gi'atify himself, small is his good in the community. I think even 
then he is probably better off than if he is an idler, but he is of no real 
use unless together with the quality which enables him to work he has 
the quality which enables him to love his fellows, to work with them 
and for them for the common good of all. ' ' 

In this enters his doctrine of the "strenuous life," first given 
forth in 1899, in a speech to the Hamilton Club, Chicago. These 
are the words in which he enunciates it : 

" I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doc- 
trine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; 
to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the m.an 
who desires m.ere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink 
from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these 
wins the splendid ultimate triumph." 

That is Roosevelt him.self; the strenuous life is the life he has 
led. As this chapter contrasts the larger good with the demands of 
expediency, let us give his views regarding the latter : 

" No m.an is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency. 
He is bound to do all the good possible. Yet he must consider the 
question of expediency, in order that he may do all the good 
possible, for otherwise he will do none. As soon as a politician 
gets to the point of thinking that to be practical he has got to 
be base, he has become a noxious member of the body politic. 
That species for practicability eats into the moral sense of the 
people like a cancer, and he who practices it can no more be 
excused than an editor who debauches public decency in order to sell 
his paper. " 

He tells us further that: "Practical politics must not be con- 
strued to mean dirty politics. On the contrary, in the long run, the 
politics of fraud and treachery and foulness are unpractical politics, 
and the miost practical of all politicans is the one who is clean and 
decent and upright. The party m.an who offers his allegiance to 
party as an excuse for blindly following his party right or wrong, and 
who fails to try to make that party in any way better, commits a 
crime against his country. ' ' 



THE LARGER GOOD CONSTRASTED WITH EXPEDIENCY loi 

Believing firmly in such sentiments, he was a strong advocate of 
civil service reform, of selecting the man who was to serve the 
country in any field on the basis of his character and attainments, not 
on that of his party services. This fitted him well to fill the office of 
Civil Service Commissioner, and he did splendid work in this position. 
He cared nothing for a m.an's politics; he cared much for his fitness 
for the work to be done. Finding that the idea was entertained that 
only Republicans had any chance to enter the public service during 
a Republican administration, he sent for all the representatives of 
Southern newspapers in Washington and told them flatly that nothing 
of the kind should exist while he was in office. He found that the 
South was far from having its share of positions, and said, in his 
decisive way: 

" I assume, on general principles, that most of your educated 
young men are Democrats; but you may give them my absolute 
guaranty that they will receive the same consideration in every 
respect as the young men in other parts of the country, that no one 
will enquire what their politics are, and that they will be appointed 
according to their deserts and in the regular order of apportionment. 
This is an institution not for Republicans, and not for Democrats, 
but for the whole American people. It belongs to them, and will be 
administered, as long as I stay here, in their interest without dis- 
crimination. ' ' 

He mieant every word of it. Soon bright young Southerners 
began to swarm to the examinations and it was not long before the 
South was fairly represented in the government service. 

Roosevelt was not the chairman of the Civil Service Com- 
mission; but his personality shone through so clearly that men 
looked on him as the Commission. When he went in he found 14,000 
government officers under the civil service rules; when he went out 
he left 40,000 and he received the warm thanks of President Cleve- 
land, into whose term his service had extended. 

Another matter which naturally bore upon Roosevelt's mind as 
President was the question of national finances. As a Republican, 
he favored a protective tariff, but he was strongly imbued with the 
idea that those who had accumulated large wealth should be made 



102 THE LARGER GOOD CONSTRASTED WITH EXPEDIENCY 

specially to aid the government from their superabundance. For 
this purpose he favored both an income tax and an inheritance tax — 
the latter in especial, since a Supreme Court decision had put an 
almost insurmountable obstacle in the way of an income tax. In 
several of his messages he spoke strongly on this subject. In that of 
December, 1906, he said: 

"The National Government has long derived its chief revenue 
from a tariff on imports and from an internal or excise tax. In addi- 
tion to these there is every reason why, when next our system of taxa- 
tion is revised, the National Government should impose a graduated 
inheritance tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax. The man 
of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he 
derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. 
Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his 
daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it 
should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the pro- 
tection the State gives him 

"As the law now stands it is undoubtedly difficult to devise a 
national income tax which shall be constitutional. But whether it 
is absolutely impossible is another question, and if possible it is most 
certainly desirable. ... I feel that in the near future our 
national legislators should enact a law providing for a graduated 
inheritance tax by which a steadily increasing rate of duty should be 
put upon all moneys or other valuables coming by gift, bequest, or 
devise to any individual or corporation. It may be well to make the 
tax heavy in proportion as the individual benefited is remote of kin. 
In any event, in my judgment the pro rata of the tax should increase 
very heavily with the increase of the amount left to any one individual 
after a certain point has been reached. It is most desirable to 
encourage thrift and ambition, and a potent source of thrift and 
ambition is the desire on the part of the bread-winner to leave his 
children well off. This object can be attained by making the tax 
very small on moderate amounts of property left ; because the prime 
object should be to put a constantly increasing burden on the inherit- 
ance of those swollen fortunes which it is certainly of no benefit to 
this country to perpetuate. ' ' 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Conservation of Natural Resources and 
Development of Public Works 

DURING the career of Theodore Roosevelt as President of the 
United States a host of important subjects pressed themselves 
upon his attention, chief among them all, so far as regarded 
internal affairs, being two great principles of progress and reform 
which were kept constantly before him as aids in the advancement of 
the American people and the development of American civilization. 
One of these was a subject which we have already spoken of, the con- 
trol and regulation of the great financial and business corporations, 
the prevention of the accumulation of vast fortunes by unfair means 
and of the strangling of competition and oppression of the army of 
industry by fraudulent and illegal acts. The other, that which we 
have next to consider, was the conservation of the natural resources 
of the United States, the cessation of destructive methods in the 
handling of the mines and forests, the full utilization of the water- 
ways, the encouragement of agriculture, and the fostering of the 
interests of our citizens in every direction. 

The subject of conservation is one that occupied President 
Roosevelt's mind throughout his years of service, side by side with 
that of corporation control. He returned to it in nearly every 
message, he spoke of it in numerous addresses, pointing out its 
necessity and its width of application. It was one of the first things 
to engage his attention when the tragic death of President McKinley 
raised him to the Presidency. On his first Sunday in Washington as 
President he held an important interview with Mr. Pinchot and Mr. 
Newell, the chief of the Reclamation Service, and laid out with 
them the principles of the Conservation policy, the development of 
which became one of the leading achievements of his administration. 

During his term of office this was ever before his mind and the 

(103) 



104 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

subject of forest preservation, development of the waterways, and 
similar interests grew to be a great governmental issue. As a result 
of the President's vital interest, that of the States and of the people 
at large was awakened to this subject, and it was everywhere seen 
that proper attention to the forests, waterways, mines, fisheries, 
water-powers, etc., together with the restriction of trusts and regula- 
tion of railroad management, were matters of absolute necessity for 
the future interests of the American people. 

In his first message, that of December, 1901, President Roosevelt 
devotes much space to this subject, telling us that: " The forests are 
natural reservoirs. By restraining the streams in flood and replen- 
ishing them in drought they make possible the use of waters other- 
wise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and so protect 
the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation 
is therefore an essential condition of water conservation. 

He goes on to speak of the necessity of building great storage 
reservoirs to save the flood waters and equalize the flow of streams, 
and suggests that the National Governmicnt should take this work in 
hand as one not likely to be done properly by individual States. He 
had in view not only the purpose of keeping the streams navigable, 
but also that of reclaiming to fertility great stretches of arid land by 
works of irrigation. 

This purpose has since then borne admirable fruit. We are all 
aware of the splendid work which the Government has done and is 
doing in the arid West. We know of the millions of acres of former 
desert which have been in this way reclaimed from sterility and 
niade highly fertile farm lands, the homes of busy populations. We 
know of other millions of acres yet to be reclaimed as the result of 
processes in which President Roosevelt was the prim.e mover. 

Connected with the development of this noble system of irriga- 
tion are two other subjects to which the President directed his atten- 
tion, the proper use of the grazing lands of the V\^est and the preserva- 
tion of the forests. As regards the former, in his message of Decem- 
ber, 1907, he alluded to the report of a public lands commission, 
which said that great areas of public land had fallen illegally into the 
hands of a few men and that enormous waste was being caused by 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 



105 



unrestricted grazing upon the open range. He recommended legis- 
lation in the interests of the actual home-makers and spoke of the 
methods of the grazers in the following significant words : 

" Some such legislation as that proposed is essential in order to 
preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit 
for cultivation under present methods and are valuable only for the 
forage which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 
300,000,000 acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, 
horses and goats, without restriction. Such a system, or rather such 
lack of system, means that the range is not so much used as wasted 
by abuse. As the West settles the range becomes more and miore 
over-grazed. Much of it can not be used to advantage unless it is 
fenced, for fencing is the only way by which to keep in check the 
owners of nomad flocks which roam hither and thither, utterly 
destroying the pastures and leaving a waste behind so that their 
presence is incompatible with the presence of home-makers. The 
existing fences are all illegal. Some of them represent the improper 
exclusion of actual settlers, actual hom.e-makers, from territory 
which is usurped by great cattle companies. Some of them represent 
what is in itself a proper effoit to use the range for those upon the 
land, and to prevent its use by nomadic outsiders. All these fences, 
those that are hurtful and those that are beneficial, are alike illegal 
and must come down. But it is an outrage that the law should 
necessitate such action on the part of the Administration. The 
unlawful fencing of public lands for private grazing must be stopped, 
but the necessity which occasioned it must be provided for. The 
Federal Government should have control of the range, whether by 
permit or lease, as local necessities may determine. ' ' 

So much as regarded the grazing lands. His attention was 
equally directed to the proper management of the forests. He said : 
" Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess 
it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of 
this country as inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of 
the country, the coal, iron, oil, gas, and the like, does not reproduce 
itself, and therefore is certain to be exhausted ultimately. " Waste- 
fulness in dealing with it, he declared, was sure to make trouble for 

future generations. 
D 



io6 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

This is not the case with the forests, which can be replaced. He 
says in this respect: "Yet so rapid has been the rate of exhaustion 
of timber in the United States in the past, and so rapidly is the 
remainder being exhausted, that the country is unquestionably on 
the verge of a timber famine, which will be felt in every household 
in the land About twenty per cent of our forested terri- 
tory is now reserved in National forests, but this does not include the 
most valuable timber lands. . . . Far more drastic action is 
needed. Forests can be lumbered so as to give to the public the full 
use of their mercantile timber without the slightest detriment to the 
forest, any more than it is a detriment to a farm to furnish a harvest. ' ' 

In actual practice little thought was given to forest preservation 
and in many localities the forests were being destroyed at a devas- 
tating rate. To put a stop to this wasteful and needless destruction 
was an important part of President Roosevelt's policy. He spoke 
appealingly of the necessity of stopping it, and in his message of 
December, 1908, pointed out at length the frightful damage that had 
been done in North Carolina by permitting the people to cut off all 
the timber from the mountains for private use. The big trees, he 
says, disappeared centuries ago, and to-day the small trees and 
shrubs are chopped down and rooted out. The soil has been washed 
away, the mountains are left bare, and in consequence of this reckless 
destruction, to which the Government has paid no attention, " many 
formerly rich districts are now sandy wastes, useless for human 
cultivation and even for pastui'e. ' ' Something similar is to be seen 
in various other countries, "and it is criminal to permit individuals 
to purchase a little gain for themselves through the destruction of 
forests when this destruction is fatal to the well-being of the whole 
country in the future. ' ' 

From the forests he turns to the waterways, with similar sugges- 
tions as to their improvement, so as to make them not only navi- 
gable but navigated. In his last annual message he says : 

" Inquiry into the condition of the Mississippi and its principal 
tributaries reveals very many instances of the utter waste caused 
by the methods which have hitherto obtained for the so-called 
'improvement' of navigation. A striking instance is supplied by 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 107 

the 'improvement' of the Ohio, which, begun in 1824, was con- 
tinued under a single plan for half a century. In 1875 ^ ^^w plan 
was adopted and followed for a quarter of a century. In 1902 still 
a different plan was adopted and has since been pursued at a rate 
which only promises a navigable river in from twenty to one hundred 
years longer. 

" Such shortsighted, vacillating, and futile methods are accom- 
panied by decreasing water-borne commerce and increasing traffic 
congestion on land, by increasing floods, and by the waste of public 
money. The remedy lies in abandoning the methods which have so 
signally failed and adopting new ones in keeping with the needs and 
demands of our people. 

" Until the work of river improvement is undertaken in a modern 
way it can not have results that will meet the needs of this modern 
nation. These needs should be met without further dilly-dallying 
or delay. The plan which promises the best and quickest results is 
that of a permanent commission authorized to coordinate the work 
of all the Government departments relating to waterways and to 
frame and supervise the execution of a comprehensive plan. . . . 
The time for playing with our waterways is past. The country 
demands results. ' ' 

To show the importance of developing and utilizing the streams 
of the Mississippi Valley in particular, he has given us, in a speech at 
Memphis, October 4, 1907, the following word picture of that great 
region and the reasons why it should be given every commercial 
advantage : 

" In wealth of natural resources no kingdom of Europe can com- 
pare with the Mississippi Valley and the region around the Great 
Lakes, taken together, and in proportion this huge, fertile plain 
already surpasses all save one or two of the largest European king- 
doms. In this empire a peculiarly stalwart and masterful people 
finds itself in the surroundings best fitted for the full development of 
its powers and faculties. . . . The valley of the Mississippi is 
politically and commercially more important than any other valley 
on the face of the globe. Here more than anywhere else will be 
determined the future of the United States and indeed of the whole 



io8 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

western world; and the type of civilization reached in this mighty 
valley, in this vast stretch of country lying between the Alleghenies 
and the Rockies, the Great Lakes and the Gulf, will largely fix the 
type of civilization for the whole Western hemisphere. ' ' 

Its coal, lumber, cotton, corn, cattle; the fertility of the soil and 
the riches beneath the soil; the great ranching country in its drier 
portions; its active manufacturing cities; the energy of its people; 
all these make cheap transportation a necessity, and the fullest utili- 
zation of the great, liquid highways which nature has thus provided 
is a pressing national duty. 

There are many other things in the nature of conservation and 
improvement of conditions to which President Roosevelt turned his 
attention. One of these which especially appealed to him was that 
of making the forest reserves places for the preservation of the wild 
forest creatures, safe havens of refuge for our large animals, now 
rapidly diminishing. He also called attention to the widening of the 
area of good roads and to the education of the farmer in his peculiar 
duties. To this the Department of Agriculture was devoting its 
energies and also to the introduction of new farm plants, such as the 
macaroni wheat and the useful alfalfa. In all this he took a living 
interest. 

Everything, indeed, likely to act for the advantage of the people 
was included in President Roosevelt's circle of policies. These com- 
posed the cleanliness of city streets, the development of sanitation, 
the fight against communicable diseases, the prevention of sale of 
impure foods and unclean or spoiled meats and all other things likely 
to prove deleterious to public health. 

The need of the enforcement of the law especially appealed to 
him, in particular of those laws directed towards the defence of the 
poor and helpless against the rich and powerful. The protection of 
working women and children against injustice and oppression was 
one of those subjects in which he was strongly interested and con- 
cerning which he did not fail to express himself in his decisive manner. 
As regards the enforcement of law in general, he thus expressed 
himself : 

" A few years ago there was loud complaint that the law could 



1 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 109 

not be invoked against wealthy offenders. There is no such com- 
plaint now. The course of the Department of Justice during the 
last few years has been such as to make it evident that no man stands 
above the law, that no corporation is so wealthy that it can not be 
held to account. The Department of Justice has been as prompt 
to proceed against the wealthiest malefactor whose crime was one of 
greed and cunning as to proceed against the agitator who incites to 
brutal violence. Everything that can be done under existing law, 
and with the existing state of public opinion, which so profoundly 
influences both the courts and juries, has been done. But the laws 
themselves need strengthening in more than one important point; 
they should be made more definite, so that no honest man can be led 
unwittingly to break them, and so that the real wrongdoer can be 
readily punished." 

That statements of this kind express only the truth appears 
evident from the recent conviction of wrongdoing in the case of such 
great corporations as the Standard Oil Company. Its wealth has 
had no effect in staying the course of justice and it is largely due to 
the persistence of President Roosevelt that such great offenders have 
been made to feel the weight of the law. 

Returning to the subject of conservation, we may point out the 
high stage of advance it reached before President Roosevelt's term of 
executive service came to an end. Feeling the urgent necessity of 
enlisting the aid of the States and the people in its development, he 
called them directly to his aid. In May, 1908, a great conference on 
natural resources was held at Washington, composed of the Gov- 
ernors of the States, brought together upon the invitation of President 
Roosevelt. There the matter was fully considered, and on June 8th 
the President appointed a Conservation Commission. Another 
meeting of the Governors was held in December, 1908, at which a 
Joint Committee on Conservation was formed, consisting of forty-two 
State commissions and fifty-one committees of national conserva- 
tion organizations, Gifford Pinchot, then Chief Forester of the United 
States, being made the chairman of the Joint Committee. 

Such is the working organization now in existence, and active 
steps have already been taken to bring about a new era in the man- 



no THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

agement of our natural treasures. So far as forest preservation is 
concerned, it is of interest to know that our National Forests now 
cover the immense area of 194,500,000 acres, a space about as large 
as Texas and Ohio combined, and that in addition there are large 
State Forests, those of New York alone covering 1,500,000 acres. 

To show to what this governmental policy has led, it m.ay be 
stated that in 1909 the National Forests yielded 352,434,000 board 
feet of timber, absolutely without depreciation; in fact the cutting 
left the forests in better condition than they were before. The loss by 
fire has also been reduced fully one-half, and the government nurs- 
eries contain 10,000,000 young trees, ready to plant wherever 
needed. In addition more than a million and a half of cattle and 
horses and nearly eight million sheep and goats have found grazing 
now within the forest borders, without damage to the range and with 
harmony between the usually hostile cattle and sheep men. 

Such are the present results of the Roosevelt conservation policy 
so far as the forests are concerned. Equal attention is being given 
to the navigable waters, to irrigation of the arid regions, and to other 
interests. As an interesting outgrowth of the work done, it may be 
stated that Canada and Mexico have agi^eed to join the United States 
in its conservation policy. President Roosevelt, indeed, took a still 
broader view and suggested a World Conservation Congress, and a 
letter was sent to forty-five different nations, suggesting the holding 
of such a Congress at the Hague. 

This letter, dated February 19, 1909, was one of the final acts of 
his Administratio n. It serves to show how greatly his views had 
developed during his term of service, and it may prove the begin- 
ning of a new era in the history of the world, one in which the old 
system of wastefulness and destruction will be replaced by a new era 
of careful preservation of the natural resources of the earth. 



CHAPTER XV. 

National Defence and the Need of A Strong 
Army and Navy 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT has the instincts of a soldier. He 
was born with fighting blood in his veins and is by nature a 
leader of men, whether in war or peace. Fearless, energetic, 
headstrong, yet cool in judgment and quick to take advantage of 
opportunities, he has the natural outfit alike for the work of the 
cabinet, the ranch, the hunting field, and the battle-field. We see it 
in his whole career; his fearlessness and resourcefulness in critical 
situations, whether facing the savage animals of America or Africa, 
the lawless frontier braggart, the Spanish battle-lines, or the dan- 
gerous element in police duty; even the onslaught of an irate Con- 
gressional faction, which is not to be despised. In all such cases he 
stands stalwart to the front. "Hit the line hard," is one of his 
maxims, taken from the football field, and wherever the line is 
formed he will be seen, like Napoleon on the bridge at Lx)di, flag in 
hand and pressing forward where the fight is thickest. 

A man of such character is apt to be a strenuous advocate of the 
necessity of preparing for war, even if advocating peace. Roosevelt's 
policy, like that of the somewhat blustering William of Germany, is 
to be always ready to strike. Such readiness, he holds, is the best 
assurance of peace. Here is an excellent presentation of his views, 
as given in his message to Congress in December, 1906: 

" It must ever be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable* 
but imperative, upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, 
where peace can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious 
conviction or of national welfare. Peace is normally a great good, 
and normally it coincides with righteousness ; but it is righteousness 
and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it 
should bind the conscience of an individual ; and neither a nation nor 

(m) 



112 NEED OF A STRONG ARMY AND NAVY 

an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping. Neither 
can a nation, which is an entity, and which does not die as individuals 
die, refrain from taking thought for the interest of the generations 
that are to come, no less than for the interest of the generation of 
to-day; and no public men have a right, whether from shortsighted- 
ness, from selfish indifference, or from sentimentality, to sacrifice 
national interests which are vital in character. A just war is in the 
long run far better for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace 
obtained by acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though 
it is criminal for a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may 
escape the dreadful consequences of being defeated in war, yet it 
mxust always be remembered that even to be defeated in war may b^: 
far better than not to have fought at all. As has been well and 
finely said, a beaten nation is not necessarily a disgraced nation ; but 
the nation or man is disgraced if the obligation to defend right is 
shirked. 

" We should as a nation do everything in our power for the cause 
of honorable peace. It is morally as indefensible for a nation to 
commit a wrong upon another nation, strong or weak, as for an 
inidvidual thus to wrong his fellows. We should do all in our power 
to hasten the day when there shall be peace among the nations — a 
peace based upon justice and not upon cowardly submission to wrong. 
, As yet there is no likelihood of establishing any kind of 
international power, of whatever sort, which can effectively check 
wrongdoing, and in these circumstances it would be both a foolish 
and an evil thing for a great and free nation to deprive itself of the 
power to protect its own rights and even in exceptional cases to stand 
up for the rights of others. Nothing would more promote iniquity, 
nothing would further defer the reign upon earth of peace and 
righteousness, than for the free and enlightened peoples which, though 
with much stumbling and many shortcomings, nevertheless strive 
toward justice, deliberately to render themselves powerless while 
leaving every despotism and barbarism arm.ed and able to work 
their wicked will. The chance for the settlement of disputes peace- 
fully, by arbitration, now depends mainly upon the possession by the 
nations that mean to do right of sufficient armed strength to make 
their purpose effective. ' ' 



NEED OF A STRONG ARMY AND NAVY 113 

In one of his speeches Roosevelt quotes "a homely old adage" 
which reads: " Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. " 
He probably would not have quoted this adage if he had known how 
far the "big stick" was to go in public comment on his career, but 
the adage is in strict consonance with his doctrine of international 
politics. 

So far we have confined ourselves to the Roosevelt policy as 
applied to internal affairs. We have now to consider it in its inter- 
national aspect, and first of all in regard to the preparation for 
national defense. The need of being strong and ready in this direc- 
tion is one of his fixed contentions, one to which he has given expres- 
sion on every suitable occasion. To be strong on the sea is his par- 
ticular admonition — a judicious one, in view of the fact that the 
ocean lies between the United States and every warring nation and 
that our most vulnerable point lies on the waters and on our sea- 
coast. He has never been troubled in soul about any foreign army 
that might by chance be landed on our soil. Its destiny would be 
like that of a hare exploring the inside of a lion's jaws. But on the 
sea and on the coast we might be hurt, and for a strong defensive and 
offensive fleet his voice has always been raised. 

President Roosevelt's views concerning the navy have been as 
frequently insisted upon as those concerning conservation and the 
evil practices of corporations. We can give here only a summary of 
them. In his 1901 annual message to Congress he said: 

"Our present Navy was begun in 1882. At that period our 
Navy consisted of a collection of antiquated wooden ships, already 
almost as out of place against modern war vessels as the galleys of 
Alcibiades and Hamilcar — certainly as the ships of Tromp and 
Blake. Nor at that time did we have men fit to handle a modern 
man-of-war. Under the wise legislation of the Congress and the 
successful administration of a succession of patriotic Secretaries of 
the Navy, belonging to both political parties, the work of upbuilding 
the Navy went on, and ships equal to any in the world of their kind 
were continually added; and what was even more important, these 
ships were exercised at sea singly and in squadrons until the men 
aboard them were able to get the best possible service out of them. 



114 NEED OF A STRONG ARMY AND NAVY 

The result was seen in the short war with Spain, which was decided 
with such rapidity because of the infinitely greater preparedness of 
our Navy than of the Spanish Navy. ' ' 

It is well to state here that this exercise of the ships and men 
before the Spanish war was very largely the work of Roosevelt 
himself, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy and especially con- 
cerned in exercising the men at the guns. The story of what he did 
is told in Chapter VI, and does not need to be repeated here. It is 
also told there how he kept the coaling stations well supplied with 
fuel and thus enabled Dewey to deliver his telling blow at Manila. 
He smelt the coming war in the air and was determined that the 
navy should be ready when the time came. 

He tells us that "It is not possible to improvise a Navy after 
war breaks out. The ships must be built and the men trained long 
in advance. In the late war with Spain. the ships that dealt the 
decisive blows at Manila and Santiago had been launched from two to 
fourteen years, and they were able to do as they did because the men 
in the conning- towers, the gun turrets, and the engine rooms, had, 
through long years of practice at sea, learned how to do their duty. ' ' 

This advice about ships is becoming yearly more important. 
The ships of a decade ago have been replaced by the monster Dread- 
naughts, and these are being replaced by the still larger Super- Dread- 
naughts, each costing many millions of dollars and taking years to 
build. It is becoming necessary to have ships always on the stocks 
to replace those that are put by a few years' service behind the age. 

Since the nations' representives at the Hague Conference would 
not debate the question of limitation of armaments, President 
Roosevelt felt it necessary to keep our navy in the front line and for 
a number of years asked Congress annually for four new battleships — 
never getting more than two. In his usual way he got the best he 
could and made the most of it. Also he demanded plenty of torpedo 
boats and destroyers and fortifications of the best kind to protect 
our great harbors on both oceans. In his view the proper duty of 
the navy in war is for offensive operations against hostile navies. 
For defense, he says, " the coast cities must depend upon tht^ir forlsi 
mines, torpedoes, submarines, torpedo boats and destroyers 



NEED OF A STRONG ARMY' AND NAVY 115 

He further remarks: " Parrying never yet won a fight. It can 
only be won by hard hitting, and an aggrsesive sea-going navy alone 
can do this hard hitting of the offensive type. But the forts and the 
like are necessary so that the navy may be footloose. ' ' That the 
United States navy is adapted to footloose operations he proved by 
the spectacular performance of sending a powerful fleet of battleships 
around the world in 1908. 

Our militant President had much less to say about the army. 
The navy stood first and foremost in his thoughts. He had no fear 
that the country would fail to give a good account of itself in the 
unlikely event of a foreign army venturing to land on our shores. 
Yet he thought that there was room for higher efficiency in various 
directions. These were his views in his 1907 annual message: 

"Again and again in the past our little Regular Army has 
rendered service literally vital to the country, and it may at any time 
have to do so in the future. Its standard of efficiency and instruction 
is higher now than ever in the past. But it is too small. There are 
not enough officers; and it is impossible to secure enough enlisted 
men. We should maintain in peace a fairly complete skeleton of a 
large army. A great and long-continued war would have to be 
fought by volunteers. But months would pass before any large 
body of efficient volunteers could be put in the field, and our Regular 
Army should be large enough to meet any immediate need. In par- 
ticular it is essential that we should possess a number of extra officers 
trained in peace to perform efficiently the duties urgently required 
upon the breaking out of war. ' ' 

The Medical Corps also needed to be kept in thorough efficiency. 
He could not forget that in the Spanish war the chief loss to our 
troops was not by service in the field, but by disease in camp, and not 
in Cuba, but among the regiments that never left their home country. 
Ignorance of the art of sanitation, carelessness in camp conditions, 
proved worse than war or pestilence and should never be allowed to 
exist again. 

The adoption of a new system of army control, that of placing it 
under a general staff of efficient commanders, and the incorporation 
of the State militia, the National Guard, with the Regular Army, as 



fi6 NEED OF A STRONG ARMY AND NAVY 

part of the national forces, with the training of the militia in the 
most advanced methods, were final outcomes of President Roosevelt's 
efforts, and he left office with the army in a much higher state of 
efficiency than it had possessed when he entered office. 

There is only one thing more we need say here. Theodore 
Roosevelt was not the man to send out men to fight for their country 
and act the stay-at-home himself. He was, as we have intimated, 
not built that way. Fighting was his native element. All his life 
he had been in a fight of some kind. In a dozen instances he had 
shown himself a man of fearless mould. In earlier chapters abundant 
evidence of this has been given. When actual war began the battle- 
field called him as if with trumpet-blast. 

Jacob Riis, his lifelong friend, tells us : " When Dewey was in the 
East, it was Roosevelt's influence in the naval board that kept his fleet 
intact. The Olympia had been ordered home. Roosevelt secured 
the repeal of the order. 'Keep the Olympia,' he cabled him, and 
'Keep full of coal.' The resistless energy of the man carried all 
before it till the day when orders were cabled under the Pacific to 
the man with the lion heart to go in and smash the enemy. 'Capture 
or destroy!' We know the rest. 

" Roosevelt's work was done. 'There is nothing more for me to 
do here,' he said, 'I've got to get into the fight myself.' 

Get into it he did, and fought with a Trojan-like energy and 
daring that kept all eyes fixed on him and sent him home the popular 
hero of the war. "We know the rest" here also. His war record 
made him Governor. His record as Governor made him President. 
His record as President has lifted him to the world 's admiration. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Monroe Doctrine and the Panama Canal 

WASHINGTON'S advice to the people of the United States 
to keep clear of international complications has been some- 
what strictly observed in this country so far as the nations 
of Europe and i\sia are concerned. As regards those of the Western 
Hemisphere, the United States, far the most powerful of them all, 
early assumed the position of a guardian of the others, and has con- 
tinued effectively so. This step was taken in the famous Monroe 
Doctrine, promulgated in 1823, and since maintained as the perma- 
nent policy of this country regarding its weaker neighbors. Only 
once has any of the ambitious natives of Europe been bold enough 
to disregard it, this being done by the French emperor when he took 
advantage of our Civil War to invade our neighboring country of 
Mexico and seek to replace its republican government by an empire 
under a European monarch. But soon after the war ended, the 
ambitious Napoleon III found it convenient to withdraw his army 
to save it from the unpleasantness of being driven out. The United 
States gave its ultimatum and he meekly obeyed. 

There have, however, been a number of minor difficulties, owing 
chiefly to the readiness of the Latin republics to run in debt to 
European creditors and their lack of readiness to pay their debts. 
Troubles of this kind have taken place within the present century, 
and President Roosevelt felt it necessary on more than one occasion 
to reiterate the Monroe Doctrine. In fact he added to it until it 
became in a sense a Monroe-Roosevelt Doctrine. It grew to be a 
part of his policy as an American President, and as such calls for 
our attention. 

In his first message to Congress President Roosevelt made the 
following statement concerning this doctrine: 

"The Monroe Doctrine should be the cardinal feature of the 
foreign policy of all the nations of the two Americas, as it is of the 

(117) 



ii8 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 

United States. Just seventy-eight years have passed since President 
Monroe in his Annual Message announced that ' The American con- 
tinents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
colonization by any European power. ' In other words, the Monroe 
Doctrine is a declaration that there must be no territorial aggrandize- 
ment by any non-American power at the expense of any American 
power on American soil. It is in no wise intended as hostile to any 
nation in the Old World. Still less is it intended to give cover to 
any aggression by one New World power at the expense of any other. 
It is simply a step, and a long step, toward assuring the universal 
peace of the world by securing the possibility of permanent peace on 
this hemisphere. 

" This doctrine has nothing to do with the commercial relations 
of any American power, save that it in truth allows each of them to 
form such as it desires. In other words, it is really a guaranty of the 
commercial independence of the Americas. We do not ask under 
this doctrine for any exclusive commercial dealings with any other 
American state. We do not guarantee any state against punishment 
if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the 
form of the acquisition of territory by any non- American power. ' ' 

A case of threatened infringement of this doctrine took place in 
1902, when Germany, Great Britain and Italy made demands upon 
Venezuela for the settlement of certain claims and sent warships to 
enforce their claims. As President Castro was obdurate, his war- 
vessels at La Guira were seized and sunk by the allies. 

What further the allies might have done if they had not found 
fixed upon them the watchful eye of the United States we cannot say. 
The United States loomed large in the foreground and the affair ended 
in President Roosevelt being asked to act as arbitrator between the 
parties. He declined to do so; he was not to be brought into the 
position of making the United States responsible for the debts of 
Venezuela. He suggested the Hague court as the proper tribunal to 
act upon such a matter. This suggestion was accepted by Castro 
and the allies and the threatening affair was finally settled in a 
peaceful way. 

This case led to that extension of the Monroe Doctrine by Presi- 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 119 

dent Roosevelt of which we have spoken. He gave this word of 
warning to the offending repubhes in his 1905 message: " We must 
make it evident that we do not intend to permit the Monroe Doctrine 
to be used by any nation on this continent as a shield to protect it 
from the consequences of its own misdeeds against foreign nations. ' ' 

All we can undertake to do, he affirmed, in case of an outrage 
committed by an American republic against a citizen or some interest 
of a foreign state, is to prevent territorial occupation. We cannot 
undertake to protect the offending nation against all punishment. 

In a case of broken contract this country would certainly not go 
to war to prevent the collection of a just debt ; yet it would be very 
inadvisable to permit any foreign power to seize and hold the custom- 
houses of an American republic to enforce the payment of such a 
debt. The only escape from such an alternative would be for the 
United States to take the matter in hand and adopt proper measures 
to make sure that the debt should be paid. 

How this was to be done was left for consideration when a case 
in point should arise, but it would not be by the United States itself 
making permanent seizure of territory. In 1904 Roosevelt had 
expressed himself in regard to possible acts of force in such exigencies 
in the following words : 

"It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or 
entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western 
Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this country 
desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and pros- 
perous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can 
count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows 
how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and 
political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need 
fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrong-doing, 
or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of 
civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultim^ately require 
intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemis- 
phere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine 
may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases 
of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international 
police power. ' ' 



I20 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 

This step has been taken in the case of Cuba, this being in pur- 
suance of an understand ng previously made when the independence 
of Cuba was acknovN^ledged. The United States troops sent to that 
island to suppress anarchy were withdrawn as soon as a stable 
government had been established. The only other important case 
calling for intervention under the Roosevelt Administration was that 
of the island republic of San Domingo in 1907. This diminutive 
commonwealth had, as a result of its frequent revolutions, accumu- 
lated debts and claims amounting to over $30,000,000. But among 
these were unjust claims, and the total, principal and interest, was 
finally pared down to about $17,000,000. The United States now 
entered into the case, not as an usurpation, but at the request of the 
Dominican government. It took control of the custom-houses of 
the republic, undertaking to pay from their proceeds a certain amount 
of the debt annually and turn over the balance into the revenues of 
the country. This is being done satisfactorily, and under this tem- 
porary guardianship the turbulent little republic has been put in a 
better state financially than it has enjoyed for many years. The 
spirit of revolution has also been subdued and will scarcely reappear 
under United States supervision. 

Such is the existing status of affairs in the two Americas, as 
developed under the Roosevelt administration. ; But there is 
another concern of high interest to the future development of the 
American republics, which has developed during the Roosevelt term 
of office and with which President Roosevelt has been vitally con- 
cerned. This is the Panama Canal, a project actively fostered by 
him and which has been remarkably advanced under his control. 
Some account of this important enterprise, therefore, is here in place. 

It has long been looked upon as a necessary outcome of the 
Monroe Doctrine that any canal across the isthmus between North 
and South America should be under American supervision. Though 
the excavation of a Panama Canal was undertaken by France, the 
United States government insisted that no European power should 
control suoh a canal. When the French project failed the United 
States held it in view to construct a canal on its own account, a route 
across Nicaragua being chosen and surveys made. 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 121 

Such was the state of affairs in 1902 when, under the Roosevelt 
Presidency, the French company offered its partly finished work and 
all its rights to the United States for $40,000,000. The offer was 
quickly accepted and a treaty subsequently negotiated with the 
republic of Colombia, of which Panama was a state. When in 
August, 1903, Colombia rejected this treaty Panama at once broke 
into rebellion, announced itself an independent republic and asked 
for recognition as such. 

President Roosevelt wanted the canal and was impatient at the 
delay and dissatisfied with the action of Colombia, which looked like 
a purpose to bleed the United States treasury. He therefore, with 
what many regarded undue haste, recognized the new republic three 
days after it had been proclaimed and proceeded at once to nego- 
tiate with it. 

It cannot be said that the President's haste in this matter was 
judicious or that any time would have been lost by a reasonable 
amount of delay, in recognition. But, as we have said, Theodore 
Roosevelt is by nature impulsive and he probably had it in mind to 
rebuke the Colombian Senate for its apparent double-dealing with 
the United States. 

However we may view this, the canal project went swimmingly 
on. Panama seceded and declared its independence November 3, 
1903; the Colombian soldiers evacuated Colon on the 5th, the 
United States acknowledged the new republic on the 6th ; a minister 
from Panama was received by President Roosevelt on the 13th; on 
the 15th Commissioners from Panama reached New York; on the 
1 8th a canal treaty between the two countries was signed, under 
which this country agreed to pay Panama $10,000,000 for the right 
of way and the necessary dominion over the canal zone. Under this 
treaty the canal is now being constructed. 

It may well be said that in this matter President Roosevelt did 
not let the grass grow under his feet. In fifteen days after the 
secession of Panama the treaty was completed and every obstacle in 
the way of making an American canal removed. The Nicaragua 
project was at once abandoned and steps taken to proceed with 
all available despatch in the completion of the French work. It 



122 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 

is scarcely necessary to say that the excavation has been pushed 
forward with all possible speed and that the end of it is now easily 
in sight. 

We have given special attention to this enterprise both from the 
bearing which it has upon the Monroe Doctrine and the future 
prosperity of the American republics, and the fact that it looms large 
in the special Roosevelt policies, ranking with those of conservation 
and government control. Under the impulse of President Roosevelt 's 
energy wonderful progress has been made on the Isthmus, alike in 
the work of excavation and in that of sanitary and other necessary 
preliminaries. As regards sanitation, the remarkable achievement 
has been performed of converting what was formerly a pest hole into 
as healthy a location as can anywhere be found. As regards excava- 
tion, the amount of work done within the past few years much sur- 
passes anything of the kind ever before done in an equal period. 

President Roosevelt's vital interest in the enterprise was so 
great that in November, 19 lo, he did what no American President 
has ever before done. He left the United States and visited Panama, 
being the first President to set foot, while in office, upon a foreign 
shore. It was a breaking of precedent, but that he was at any time 
ready to do, if any advantage was to be gained. 

He was only three days ashore, from November 14th to 17th, but 
in those three days he saw enough to be described in an interesting 
thirty-page pamphlet. As regards sanitation, and the eradication of 
the yellow-fever mosquito, he makes the rather remarkable state- 
ment, in view of the former swarms of these insects in that locality : 
"As a matter of fact, but a single mosquito, and this not of the 
dangerous species, was seen by any member of the party during my 
three days' stay on the Isthmus. " 

In every other respect the greatest care for the health of the 
workmen had been taken and he was able to make the equally 
surprising statement: "Of the 6,000 white Americans, including 
some 1,200 women and children, not a single death has occurred in 
the past three months, whereas in an average city of the United 
States the number of deaths for a similar number of people in that 
time would have been about thirty from disease. " 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL 123 

Care was being taken in every way to make the employes com- 
fortable and contented, while the work was being pushed forward 
with the greatest energy and with phenomenal rapidity. In an 
address to the employes he told them that: " This is one of the great 
works of the world, .... a work the like of which has not 
before been seen in the ages, a work that shall last through the ages 
to come, and I pledge you, as President of the United States, and 
speaking for the people of the United States, every ounce of support 
and help and assistance that it is in my power to give you, so that we 
together, you backed by the people of the United States, may 
speedily bring this greatest of work to a triumphant conclusion." 

This pledge was well kept during the remainder of his Adminis- 
tration, and when he left office the work was so well advanced that 
its end could be positively promised within six years. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Advocate of International Arbitration and 
World Peace 

IT was not until 1898, after our brief war for the liberation of Cuba 
from the cruelties of Spanish rule, that the world fairly woke up 
to a full realization of the fact that a nation to be reckoned 
with had risen in the West, a power which was ready to take a full 
part in settling the affairs of the world. Previously the United 
States had given its attention strictly to the affairs of the western 
hemisphere, while Europe took upon itself the task of managing the 
rest of the world. But the rapidity with which the American 
colossus disposed of Spain and its evident standing as a great naval 
and financial power, with the interest in Eastern affairs which it 
gained from its possession of the Phihppines, gave a new aspect to 
the situation. Evidently the United States would take part in the 
future in moving the pieces on the chess-board of the world. 

What part would it take— one for war or one for peace? The 
first indication of its attitude was shown during the Boxer outbreak 
in China. American marines were prominent in the march upon 
Peking, but American statesmanship came promptly to the aid of 
the prostrate Chinese governm.ent and saved that ancient nation 
from danger of partition between the victorious powers. Later on it 
showed a magnanimity not shared in by any of the European powers, 
by voluntarily reducing its share of the indemnity laid on China, so 
as to bring it within just limits. It had no desire to squeeze the last 
possible penny from the suppliant nation, as its European allies 
were doing. 

This act of simple justice came within the Roosevelt Adminis- 
tration, and was in strict consonance with its spirit. Throughout 
this administration we have heard threatening rumors of war and 
explosive fulminations, but these have been newspaper campaigns, 

(124) 



ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 125 

and the voice of the executive remained steadily for peace. Presi- 
dent Roosevelt stood in a different position from Naval Secretary 
Roosevelt. The latter could freely give way to the promptings of his 
native energy and love of perilous adventure and plunge freely into 
war, but the President had something besides his own impulses to 
consider and from the start took the position of an apostle of peace, 
an advocate of the abolition of war and of the settling of all inter- 
national disputes by peaceful arbitration. 

This may seem a strange statement to those who look upon 
Theodore Roosevelt as a man eager for blood-letting, a western war- 
lord burning for the intensities of the battle-field, a President strenu- 
ously urging the creation of a strong army and a masterful navy and 
striding about "with a chip on his shoulder." The fact is that he 
had sound reasons for his seemingly combative policy, and no man of 
the present century has wrought more actively in the cause of peace. 

In an oration before the University of Pennsylvania he quotes 
two maxims of Washington: " Observe good faith and justice toward 
all nations, " and " To be prepared for war is the most effective means 
to promote peace." He tells us: "These two principles taken 
together should form the basis of our whole foreign policy. ' ' He says 
further that " Our Navy is the surest guaranty of peace and the 
cheapest insurance against war, " and looking back over our history, 
says that if our navy had been built up in the opening years of the 
last century, as it should have been, " it would probably never have 
Ijeen necessary to fight the war of 1 8 1 2 . " He felt that if we had been 
strong at sea England v/ould not have dared to meddle with our com- 
merce and sailors. 

Appeals for steps leading to peace between nations have been 
frequent in his messages and speeches, though he persistently advo- 
cates the keeping a strong hand as a means of giving our voice a 
weight in the councils of the nations. Among his many utterances 
we quote the following from his message to Congress in December, 
1905: 

" More and more war is coming to be looked upon as in itself 
a lamentable and evil thing. A wanton or useless war, or a war of 
mere aggression — in short, any war begun or carried on in a con- 



126 ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 

scienceless spirit — is to be condemned as a peculiarly atrocious crime 
against all humanity. We can, however, do nothing of permanent 
value for peace unless we keep ever clearly in mind the ethical element 
which lies at the root of the problem. Our aim is righteousness. 
Peace is normally the handmaiden of righteousness ; but when peace 
and righteousness conflict then a great and upright people can never 
for a moment hesitate to follow the path which leads toward right- 
eousness, even though that path also leads to war. . . . Only 
that nation is equipped for peace that knows how to fight and that 
will not shrink from fighting if ever the conditions become such that 
war is demanded in the name of the highest morality. ' ' 

Let us go back to the days when he was Vice-President and learn 
his sentiments at that date in his career. We quote from his address 
before the Minnesota State Fair on September i, 1901. He said: 

" Let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of 
saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting \^dthout hesitation 
up to whatever we say. A good many of you are prr)bably acquainted 
with the old proverb, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will 
go far. ' If a man continually blusters, if he lack? civility, a big stick 
will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, 
if back of the softness there does not lie strength , power. In private 
life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always 
loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not prej)ared to back up his 
words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with 
the nation. Whenever at any point we come in contact with a for- 
eign power, I hope we shall always strive to speak courteously and 
respectfully of that foreign power. Let us make it evident that we 
intend to do justice. Then let us make it equally evident that we 
will not tolerate injustice being done us in return. Such an attitude 
will be the surest possible guaranty of that self-respecting peace, 
the attainment of which is and must ever be the prime aim of a self- 
governing people. 

It is not necessary to give quotations from all his remarks show- 
ing his attitude on this question, but a brief one from his first annual 
message, that of 1901, will not be amiss: 

"The true end of every great and free people should be self- 



ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 127 

respecting peace and this nation most earnestly desires sincere and 
cordial friendship with all others. Over the entire world, of recent 
years, wars between the great civilized powers have become less and 
less frequent. Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous peoples come 
in an entirely different category, being merely a most regrettable 
but necessary international police duty which must be performed 
for the sake of the welfare of mankind. Peace can only be kept 
with certainty where both sides wish to keep it ; but more and more 
the civilized peoples are realizing the wicked folly of war and are 
attaining that condition of just and intelligent regard for the rights 
of others which will in the end, as we hope and believe, make world- 
wide peace possible. The peace conference at The Hague gave 
definite expression to this hope and belief and marked a stride 
toward their attainment. " 

Words are very well in their way, but to have any valuable 
effect upon the world they need to be backed up by deeds. For- 
tunately, President Roosevelt was prepared to back up his words at 
every opportunity. We cannot say that he ever followed his own 
adage of "speak softly," but he did that of "carry a big stick," 
which he did not fail to use in efforts to advance the cause of peace 
whenever opportunity served. 

The first example was a domestic one, that of bringing to an end 
a state of warfare between capital and labor. We refer to the 
settling of the obstinate coal strike in Pennsylvania, spoken of in a 
former chapter. Abroad the President's attention was turned 
chiefly toward efforts to develop arbitration in international disputes, 
following up the important stand taken by the Hague Conference of 
1899. 

The war of 1904-05 between Russia and Japan brought an 
opportunity for more direct intervention. While the Great Powers of 
Europe, troubled in soul at this obstinate conflict, were hesitating at 
the bare thought of interfering, in the face of diplomatic precedent, 
they were astounded by hearing a voice from across the waters, from 
a man for whom precedent had no terrors. On June 8, 1905, there 
went out from the White House at Washington a despatch to Russia 
and Japan, beginning with the words: "The President feels that the 



tzB ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 

time has come when in the interest of all mankind he must endeavor 
to see if it is not possible to bring to an end the terrible and lam.entable 
conflict now being waged. " 

It went on to suggest that peace negotiations should be opened 
between the belligerents and offered the services of the President of 
the United States to this end, if in any way he could aid in efforts to 
bring about peace. The warring nations, then preparing for a great 
final battle the outcome of which no man could foresee, caught at 
the proffer like shipwrecked mariners clutching at a floating log. 
The Portsmouth Conference was held, a treaty of peace was made, 
and the world rang with praises of President Roosevelt as the cutter 
of the Gordian knot. This act went far to build up for him the 
European admiration which has recently been so strikingly mani- 
fested. 

The concluding of treaties of arbitration on the part of the 
United States with foreign powers, for the settlement of disputes 
that might arise between them, made great progress in 1904, begin- 
ning with a treaty with France signed November ist, followed by 
others with Germany, Switzerland and Portugal, and closing with 
one signed on December 12th with Great Britain. In 1905 similar 
treaties were made with Austria-Hungary, Norway and Sweden, 
and Mexico. These treaties provided that international questions 
which could not be settled by diplomacy should be referred to the 
Court of Arbitration at the Hague, "provided that they do not 
affect the vital interests, the independence, or the honor of the two 
contracting states and do not concern the interests of third parties. ' ' 
Since then arbitration treaties have been concluded with various 
other nations, including many of the American republics. 

It was, however, the operation of the Permanent Court of 
Arbitration at the Hague with which President Roosevelt was most 
immediately concerned and with the development of which he had the 
most to do. He suggested a second Conference to the Powers in a 
note dated December 16, 1904, but it was deferred until after the 
close of the Russo-Japan War. When the Emperor of Russia, who 
had called the original conference, suggested that he would like to call 
this also. President Roosevelt was quite willing and a Peace Congress 
was called, it meetmg At the Hague in June, 1907. 



ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 129 

Much was done at this Congress to provide for allaying the 
horrors of war, and the American representatives proposed a Perma- 
nent Court of Arbitral Justice and a system of forcible arbitration. 
Though these measures w^ere defeated, another American idea was 
adopted, that of an International Prize Court, which was regarded as 
the most important result reached by the Conference. This was in 
addition to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, established by the 
1899 Conference. 

Arbitration at the Hague is now provided for in all cases of 
international dispute save those involving national honor or otherwise 
of vital interest to the nations concerned. More than one serious 
difficulty has been settled by the Court. President Roosevelt 
brought about settlement of the Venezuela difficulty before this 
tribunal. He did various other things in the interest of peace and 
international union. One of these was his prominence in bringing 
about the Conference to settle the threatening controversy between 
France and Germany on the Morocco question. In 1906 he sent a 
delegation under Secretary Root to the Pan-American Congress at 
Rio de Janeiro to explain to its members the true significance of the 
Monroe Doctrine, of which the Latin republics had misleading ideas. 
In the Far East he established new guarantees in favor of the " open 
door ' ' for commerce and the national status of China. 

To his inception we owe various other acts of statesmanship in 
the interest of world-peace. A recital of them all might not prove 
of interest, but that his high standing in this field of effort was fully 
recognized in Europe is evidenced by the conferring upon him in 
1906 of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the man who has done the 
most in bringing about peace between the nations. 

This, too, had much to do with the remarkable reception given 
him in Europe in 19 10. And on that occasion, in his notable address 
at Christiania, Norway, before the King and a distinguished audience 
including members of the Nobel Prize Committee, he took a step 
forward in the advocacy of peace of the most radical and far-reaching 
character. This was his suggestion that the Great Powers should 
unite into a League of Peace, not only to keep the peace among them- 
selves, but to prevent by force it being broken by others, some form 

9 



I30 ADVOCATE OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 

of international police power being established competent and willing 
to prevent violence between nations and oblige them to settle their 
disputes in peaceful methods. 

This idea is full of vital significance. If carried out the reign of 
war would probably come to an end. It had its immediate echo in 
a suggestion made to the United States Congress to the effect that 
the nations should be invited to syndicate their navies, forming them 
into a great ocean police. 

If the seeds here sown shall grow and ripen, ex- President Roose- 
velt will attain to the highest position gained by any statesman in 
the modern world, that of the man who set moving the impulse 
which brought war, with all its horrors, to a final end and established 
the reign of peace and justice upon the earth. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Hunter, Rancher, and Lover of Nature and 

Outdoor Life 

WE have hitherto dealt with Theodore Roosevelt largely from 
the point of view of his political life, narrating the incidents 
of his campaigns in favor of honesty in business and politics, 
of a square deal for all men, of readiness for war as the best assurance 
of peace, and of equipping the government with legal power to restrain 
and control the most powerful associations when bent upon oppression 
and fraud. 

We have now to deal with him in a more personal sense, to say 
something about his life when free from the trammels of official duty 
and open to indulge in that love of outdoor life and physical exertion 
which has been a passion with him since his boyhood. The "strenuous 
life" which he advocates for others is the life which his own nature 
demands, and what he calls play most men would designate as hard 
work. For him life is work, the making of opportunities for hard 
exertion where none offer. 

Once, when as Police Commissioner he attended a reunion of 
his college class, a professor present told of a student whom he had 
asked what he proposed to make his work in the world. He replied 
with a yawn : 

''Why, really, do you know, professor, it does not seem to me 
that there is anything that is much worth while." 

This remark touched the anger point in Roosevelt's soul. 

"That fellow," he exclaimed, with a blow on the table that 
made it dance, "ought to have been knocked in the head. I would 
rather take my chances with a blackmailing policeman than such 
as he." 

There was no fear but that Roosevelt would find plenty worth 
while doing. His very play has always been vigorous exercise. 



132 HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 

A delicate child, subject to asthmatic attacks that sapped his vitality, 
to overcome the weakness of his puny body became a passion with 
him. Outdoor activities — running, rowing, swimming — were his 
daily occupation. Whatever he did was done with a will and he 
enjoyed every inch of it. A born lover of nature, in his woodland 
tramps he studied the birds of the vicinity, learning their songs, 
observing their nests, their plumage. The flowers and trees told him 
their story; everything in nature had its lesson for him. And all 
this time his muscles were growing strong, his frame tough and 
hardy. He held his own with his fellows, had his schoolboy combats 
and usually came out victor. 

He grew to be a reader of books of adventure and early longed to 
take part in the wild life of the great West, to be a hunter, a path- 
finder. Cooper's Leather-stocking tales delighted his young soul. 
When asked in later years if he liked them he broke out impulsively : 

"Like them! Why, man, there is nothing like them. I could 
pass examination in the whole of them to-day. Cooper is unique in 
American literature, and he will grow upon us as we get farther away 
from his day, let the critics say what they will. ' ' 

Cooper appeals to the love of the free, open life in the American 
boy and appealed specially to one of young Roosevelt's temperament 
and fondness for open-air activity. That he would some day engage 
in the life of the hunting grounds, the sport of the plains and the hills, 
was inevitable. His whole early life led up to it. Here are his 
opinions of what the American boy should be, if he is to become a 
worthy American man: 

" The chances are strong that he won't be much of a man unless 
he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, 
a bully, a shirk or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He 
must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own 
under all circumstances and against all comers. 

" In life, as in a football gamie, the principle to follow is : Hit the 
line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard. " 

In college he kept up his athletic exercises. He even went so 
far as to practice the girl's game of rope-skipping as a means of 
Strengthening the leg muscles. Soon his whole class were following 



I 



HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 133 

his example. He played polo, he wrestled and ran with his fellows, 
he drove a two-wheeled gig, he put on boxing gloves and was open for 
any antagonist. The pummeling he got he took with good- will, but 
the man who attempted to play foul with him got well punished for 
his lack of fairness. 

He even then panted for a wider life. When a classmate pro- 
posed to him to go to Greenland and study its animal life, he was 
miore than ready. He was equally enthusiastic at the proposal to go 
tiger-hunting to India. The passion for wild life and peril was in 
his blood, as it is in that of his son Kermit to-day. College life over, 
he tried mountain-climbing in Switzerland as an outlet to his thirst 
for adventure. 

On his return home, the young athlete plunged into the political 
career which has held him captive almost ever since. Only three 
intermissions — three holidays we may fairly call them — came to him 
in this career; that of his ranch and hunting life between 1884 and 
1886, when he was in the prim.e of youth and eager to get a full taste 
of those primitive joys for which he had long aspired ; that of his war- 
life in 1898, upon which he entered with the zest of a born soldier; 
and that through which he has recently passed, his hunting adven- 
tures in Africa in 1909. His 19 10 experience of hobnobbing with 
kings in Europe can hardly be called a holiday, though it has much 
of the strenuosity which he so warmly advocates. 

It must not be supposed that the hunter's strain in Roosevelt's 
blood was repressed during his long years of official duty. He had 
his frequent outings in the domain of wild life. A notable one was 
that of his bear-hunt in 1907 in the cane-brakes of the Mississippi; 
and one of historical interest was his mountain tramp through the 
Adirondacks in 1901, so tragically brought to an end by the tidings 
of President McKinley's death. 

Even when at home in the White House, engaged in the official 
duties that called for nearly every moment of his life, the desire for 
outdoor exercise was not to be repressed. Long horseback rides and 
tramps on foot were his daily recreations, and these frequently of a 
kind that tested to the utmost the powers of endurance of his com- 
panions. 



134 HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 

Here is a story of his fondness for horseback exercise, to which 
he has been devoted since his cowboy days. But the korse he mounts 
must have the spirit of a charger, or it is not for him. Soon after 
becoming President he commissioned a friend to buy him a few 
saddle horses to replenish the White House stables. This was 
accordingly done, two showy animals, seemingly fitted for the 
dignity of their new duty, being purchased and sent in. The Presi- 
dent lost no time in trying them. Nice-treading, graceful creatures 
they were, but with no more spirit than a milch cow. The rider, after 
trying them, sprang from the saddle in disgust, and threw the bridle 
impatiently to a groom. 

*' For goodness' sake, send them back," he ejaculated. '' I 
ordered horses — not rabbits." 

He is as fond of walking as of riding, but does not know the 
meaning of a stroll. While President, he was accustomed to take 
long walks through the environs of Washington with a number of 
choice companions, striding on for miles through thick and thin, 
at a pace that kept them stirring and sent many of them home to 
bath and bed, while he came in fresh as a daisy. He has much of 
the muscular toughness of a Weston. 

Most readers are familiar with the story of his taking out a 
number of army officers on a try of their fitness for marching duty, 
leading them at a killing pace up rocky acclivities, dashing down 
steep slopes, wading streams if no bridge was at hand, and bringing 
them in often fit for the ambulance while himself fit for another dash. 

Here is a story of such a dash, told in "The Man Roosevelt," by 
F. E. Leupp. The President had invited a few friends for an after- 
noon spin up the Potomac, among them a newly appointed bureau 
chief who had before him work that demanded courage. He was 
young, cleanly built, and looked athletic, but a test of his powers of 
endurance was desirable. Another of the party was a corpulent 
office-holder, not wanting in grit, yet needing to be pulled down in 
flesh. 

"The President set the pace with his long, quick stride and the 
rest ambled after as best they could. The shore path was pleasant 
enough and not too difficult, till a point was reached where a stone- 



HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 135 

quarry jutted out into the river. The workmen had put a cable over 
one of the rocks which ran straight down into the water, to help them 
crawl around it ; there was a boat at hand, also, for the vise of any one 
who was afraid to trust himself to the cable. 

"The party halted only a moment — just long enough to see 
how the land lay. 'The boat for me, * said a Senator, who, though 
proportioned for agility, was a little out of practice, and had a great 
respect for his own dignity. 'For me too,' said the stout office- 
holder, dropping in after the Senator and making a place ready for 
the President. 

" 'Meet me on the other side,' laughed the President, and 
started across the sheer face of the rock, disdaining the aid of the 
cable, but using toes and finger-tips to clutch at the little niches left 
by the blasts. If he had missed his hold anywhere, he would have 
had a souse in ten feet of muddy water. But he didn't. His son 
Theodore and the new bureau-chief, followed where he led. All got 
home in safety some time after nightfall, and the next day the gossip 
of the town was their adventure at the big quarry rock. The minor 
members called it 'scaling the Matterhorn;' the President called it 
'bully.' " 

As for his endurance in riding, most of us will remember — it was 
not so long ago — his order to army officers to test their toughness by 
performing a fixed task on horseback within a certain limit of time — 
ninety miles within three days. He set the example himself by riding 
one hundred and eight miles at a stretch through disheartening 
weather. As for the soft-bodied officers, most of them untrained to 
the saddle — well, their task was not great, but we draw the veil over 
the sufferings of those unaccustomed to the saddle. 

Roosevelt is an ardent believer in active exercise. It hardens 
the muscles and steadies the nerves. Football, wrestling, polo, 
mountain climbing, tramps twenty miles long over rough roads, all 
are in his category. A spice of peril adds to their utility. They 
sharpen the senses. They make a man ready and fit for emergencies. 
They teach him self-care, self-control, self-confidence. They adapt 
him to face all exigencies with firm nerves. 

At home, when wanting an outing, he dons a flannel shirt, 



136 HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 

shoulders an axe, and betakes himself to the woods, from which the 
echo of swinging blows soon comes. The tougher the logs, the better 
the sport. Then he is fond of camping out with his boys. They fish, 
they sail, they row, they climb, they tumble, and when lunch time 
comes with its hearty appetite he rolls up his sleeves and turns cook, 
while the boys gather wood for the fire. 

"You oughter taste my father's stews," says Archie. "He 
tumbles them all in together — meat, onions, and potatoes — but, 
um-m ! it comes out good. 

As for the excitement and risks of the battle-field, he said one 
day to Mr. Gilder, who while shaking hands with him at a reception, 
expressed the hope " that he would not embroil us in any foreign war :" 

"What!" he cried. "A war! with me cooped up here in the 
White House! Never, sir, never!" 

This was intended as a pleasantry, no doubt, but from what we 
know of his eagerness to take part in the Spanish war it is hard to say 
what precedents he might not have broken if occasion for a war had 
come during his presidency. As the President is constitutionally the 
head of the army, he might have made himself its head in the field. 

One of his biographies tells us that " it had always been a fond 
dream of Roosevelt's to take part in a war, " and when the war with 
Spain came his knowledge of the daring character and fine horseman- 
ship of the cowboys in the West led to the happy conception of the 
Rough Riders cavalry regiment, the record of which, and of himself 
at its head, was the turning point in his career 

Aside from his war record, fortunately very brief, the two periods 
in his career which he seemed most thoroughly to enjoy were those 
of his ranching experience in the West and his hunting experience 
in Africa. In his hunting he always showed the instincts of the 
naturalist, filling his note-books with evidences of his close observa- 
tion of the habits of animals. These appear in his works on hunting 
and give them much value in science. They have often been quoted 
in scientific periodicals. Those given in his magazine articles on his 
African trip are full of neat touches of observation. 

Aside from the daring incidents of a hunter's life, and the study 
of animal habits, he shows, a warm appreciation of the chamis of 



HUNTER, RANCHER, AND LOVER OF NATURE 137 

nature. We read in his books of the deHghts of prairie life in the 
springtide, when " the flowers are out and a man may gallop for a 
mile at a stretch with his horses' hoofs sinking at every stride into 
the carpet of prairie-roses," and when "the thickets and groves 
about the ranch house are loud with bird music from dawn till long 
after sunrise and all through the night. ' ' Midsummer brings him a 
different sentiment. " From the upper branches of the cottonwoods 
comes every now and then the soft, melancholy cooing of the mourn- 
ing dove, whose voice always seems far away and expresses more than 
any other sound in nature the sadness of gentle, hopeless, never- 
ending grief. ' ' 

He tells us of the charms of day, and picturesque beauty of 
night, of the bitterness of winter in the northwest, when " all the 
land is like granite; the great rivers stand in their beds as if turned 
to frosted steel. In the long nights there is no sound to break the 
lifeless silence. Under the ceaseless, shifting play of the Northern 
Lights the snow-clad plains stretch out into dead and endless wastes 
of glimmering white. ' ' 

A man who writes in this strain has in him the full feeling of 
enjo5njaent of nature in her every phase and keen and critical obser- 
vation that can draw a photographic illustration from every scene 
and season. Had Roosevelt not been forced to take up the role of a 
statesman, he would have made a great pathfinder and naturalist. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Roosevelt as Scholar, Author and Orator 

THOSE who have read the preceding pages in which the multitu- 
dinous activities of Theodore Roosevelt's life are detailed — 
not only those of his many years of legislative and official 
labor, but as well those of his rare intervals of leisure — may wonder 
how he found time even to think and read, much less to write. WHien 
we read the list of books that have come from his pen, of voluminous 
m.essages sent in at somewhat frequent intervals to Congress, and of 
orations in all parts of the land, and are told of the great variety of 
information which he has picked up from his extensive reading, we 
fairly stand amazed, and cannot but look upon the man as a marvel. 
Never slack or slow in his official duties, snatching apparently every 
moment of leisure for outdoor exercise, he has managed to do as 
much work intellectually as many men who devote their lives to 
literary pursuits. 

The only way in which this could have been done was by letting 
no moment pass unoccupied. Apparently this indefatigable student 
never sinks back in his chair to rest his brain and his body. The book 
is always at hand and is snatched up to fill any interval which others 
give to reposeful relaxation. Albert Shaw, who was with him during 
the wild excitement of the Convention that selected him for \^ice- 
President, tells us of seeing him in an inner room, resting from the 
turmoil by reading Thucydides. This was not exactly light reading 
or mild mental recreation, but it was of the Rooseveltian type. 

His college class-mates tell us that, while visiting the rooms of 
his fellow-students, he would at any pause in the tide of talk be apt 
to pick up a book and quickly become so absorbed in its contents as 
to forget all around him. Then, suddenly becoming aware of his 
lack of politeness, he would hurry away with guiHy haste from the 
room and the raillery of his companions. This was always his habit — • 
to bury himself in his book, and become so lost in it as to forget all 

.(138) 



ROOSEVELT 'AS'SCHOTAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 139 

around him. He fairly lived in the book, and had a remarkable 
faculty of getting out of it all of value it contained. 

The chance to dip into literature seemed never to be neglected. 
\\"e have his own statement that, after bringing to earth some huge 
behemoth, on the African plains, he would throw himself down beside 
the monster, pull a book from his pocket, and solace his rest by 
reading. The books he took wnth him on this excursion, his "pig- 
skin library" he calls it, were bound in pigskin that they might be 
fitted for taking up with hands soiled with blood, pow^der-stain, gun- 
oil and other ingredients ruinous to any respectably bound book. 

It is a strange list, a very hodge-podge of books which he names 
for us. In it we find politics included in the "Federalist"; history 
in Carlyle's "Frederick the Great," in Froissart and Macaulay; Sacred 
lore in the Bible and Apocrypha ; epic poetry in the poems of Homer, 
Dante, Spenser and Milton, the "Song of Roland," and the "Nibe- 
lungenlied"; lyric poetry in the works of Shelley, Emerson, Long- 
fellow, Tennyson, Keates, Poe and Bret Harte ; essays in the writings 
of Macaulay, Bacon, Lowell, and others; drama in Euripides, 
Shakespeare and Marlowe; primitive life in Barrow's stories of the 
Gypsies; fiction in works of Dickens, Thackeray, Cooper, and Scott; 
humor in "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer," and various 
other branches of literature in other works. To it were added from 
time to time such books as "Alice in Wonderland," "Tartarin de 
Tararcan," "Don Quixote," and works of Darwin, Goethe, Huxley 
and several French writers. 

Here was certainly a highly catholic selection. His taste for 
books seems to have been omniverous. One would say that it was 
"all grist that came to his mill." He gives us other lists of books 
which he took with him on other occasions, saying 'that these "could 
only be a tiny fraction of those for which I cared and which I con- 
tinually read, and that I cared for them neither more nor less than 
for those I left at home." 

We can well understand his abundant reading of history and 
works of morals and of political philosophy, but would hardly expect 
one of his practical turn of mind to devote so much attention to 
poetry as he seems to have done. His devotion to fiction leads to 



I40 ROOSEVELT AS SCHOLAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 

the same reflection, and indicates that imagination is as fully devel- 
oped in him as the reasoning powers. 

There is little evidence of this imaginative trait in his own 
literary productions, his style being always direct and vigorous, 
getting to the point without circumlocution and as literal as he can 
make it. His works are also apt to suffer from haste and be given to 
the world without the strict editorial supervision which they should 
have had. But the wonder is that he has found the time to write 
them at all. He certainly must have lacked that for literary 
polishing. Yet withal he has the faculty of making his meaning clear, 
no one can mistake his purpose, and while there is little " fine writing' ' 
in his books, their style is direct, terse and vigorous. There is no 
beating around the bush in their pages. 

Certainly the Rooseveltian style does not appeal to all readers, 
if we may judge from a tale which he tells us with much gusto, fully 
enjoying its tart criticism of one of his works. On one occasion he 
happened into a bookstore somewhere in far-off Idaho and saw a 
copy of his " Winning of the West, " in the window. Pointing care- 
lessly toward the book, he asked the proprietor : 

"Who is this man Roosevelt?" 

" Oh, he's a ranch-driver up in the cattle country. " 

" What do you think of his book ? ' ' 

"Well," said the dealer, after a brief hesitation, "I've often 
thought I'd like to meet the author and tell him that if he'd stuck to 
running ranches and not tried to write books, he'd have cut a bigger 
figure at his trade. 

To return from Roosevelt's style as a writer to his methods as 
a reader, his friends say that his quickness in getting through books 
is as remarkable as the amount of information he seems to extract 
from them. He goes down a page with such rapidity that he is at 
its bottom before many readers would have grasped the meaning of 
the first paragraph. Yet he seems to get at the kernel of it all in 
this swift way and his retentive memory enables him to retain with 
ease the pith of many books. 

He reads a newspaper article in the same manner, though 
naturally much more swiftly, getting its significance ahnost at a 



ROOSEVELT AS SCHOLAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 141 

glance, and frequently commenting upon or answering it before one 
would think he was half through the reading. That he takes in the 
substance of his books is shown by his skill and intelligence in review- 
ing them. This is a work in which he takes delight and review 
publishers are usually very glad to have his comments. They are, 
as a rule, made without rereading the book reviewed, his recollection 
of its contents after one rapid perusal being sufficient. 

His mem.ory serves him well in all his literary work — fortunately 
for him as a writer, in view of the fact that his work is frequently 
interrupted. He has the faculty which many lack, of taking up his 
subject just where he left it to attend to some other duty, and going 
on with it as if his line of thought had not been broken. His work is 
not written, but is dictated to a stenographer, the type-written copy 
being afterwards gone over carefully and interlined with emendations 
as new suggestions come to him from the reading. 

The literary recreations of our author are by no means confined 
to books. His speeches and messages make tomes in themselves, all 
of them apparently as carefully prepared as his books. Thus his 
famous speech at the Sorbonne in Paris is said to have been written 
months before it was delivered and placed in the hands of American 
editors weeks in advance of its delivery. 

As a speech-maker and a message-writer President Roosevelt 
is notably practical. Here we find no loitering over his subject, 
wandering into any of the by-paths of thought or description, as he 
is warranted in doing in his books, but every thought is flung out 
straight and hard, hitting its mark as a bullet hits its target. There 
is no misunderstanding him here. Imagination never enters into the 
subject of his oratory. He is direct and literal — verbose, some think ; 
no other President has matched him in the length of his messages; 
but this comes partly from the variety of subjects which he deals with, 
foreign and domestic alike, and more from his habit of arguing out his 
points, going to great length of statement rather than be misappre- 
hended or that his statement shall be inadequately presented. The 
fact is, that his messages were written for the Amacrican people quite 
as much as for Congress, and were read and appreciated by this great 
populace with little regard to Congressional opinion. He had in view 
a much larger audience than that of the Capitol. 



142 ROOSEVELT AS SCHOLAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 

In his messages, and more particularly in his speeches, he deals 
largely in moral essays, directed against the crying evils of the times 
and advocating their reform or eradication. His arrows of speech 
are aimed at law-breaking corporations, fraudulent opejrations of all 
kinds, oppression in every shape, everything in which common 
honesty is wanting and his doctrine of a square deal for all men, rich 
and poor alike, is ignored. In this sense, he is a great moral philos- 
opher, a law-giver of these modern days. 

And the pith of a hundred orations and a score of messages is 
gathered up in his great Sorbonne address, in which he has brought 
together the substance of what he has been saying for years, as 
ripened by reflection in his mind, and flung out as his ultimatum of 
opinion upon the evils, dishonesties, and needs of the age. 

Platitudes, we are told, his aphorisms are. Very true; the 
ten commandments and the sayings of Confucius, Buddha and 
Christ are full of similar lessons to the world and it is not easy to add 
anything to them. But a new moral gospel, fitted to this new age, 
is timely and welcome, and Theodore Roosevelt seems the man best 
fitted, by character and position alike, for the task, even if he simply 
repeats moral lessons of the ages. 

He makes no claim to be a genius. He is not especially original. 
But he is great in being full of his mission and delivering it in sledge- 
hammer blows which cannot be ignored. Certainly no man of 
this young century has half matched him in bringing the world to a 
realization of its duty and of teaching its people what they must do 
to be saved. It is the spirit of the time that moves in the man. We 
feel it stirring all about us; a thirst for reform and moral elevation; 
an uplifting sentiment in favor of business and political honor and 
integrity. Theodore Roosevelt may have had but little to do with 
starting the movement, but he is its chief apostle. 

We may close' this review by quoting some passages from his 
utterances, showing his point of view of the needful moral status of 
the nations: 

"Arrogance, suspicion, brutal envy of the well-to-do, brutal in- 
difference toward those who are not well-to-do, the hard refusal to 
consider the rights of others, the foolish refusal to consider the limits 



ROOSEVELT AS SCHOLAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 143 

of beneficent action, the base appeal to the spirit of selfish greed, 
whether it take the form of plunder of the fortunate or of oppression 
of the unfortunate — from these and from all kindred vices this nation 
must be kept free if it is to remain in its present position in the fore- 
front of the peoples of mankind. 

" On the other hand, good will come, even out of the present evils, 
if we face them armed with the old homely virtues ; if we show that 
we are fearless of soul, cool of head, and kindly of heart ; if, without 
betraying the weakness that cringes before wrongdoing, we yet show 
by deeds and words our knowledge that in such a government as ours 
each of us must be in very truth his brother's keeper. " 

There is the true ring in these aphorisms. They conceal no spirit 
of time-serving, and here, in a few words, are his views of the finance 
of honest business, as stated to Mr. Riis : 

" Publicity hurts no honest business, and is not feared by the 
man of straight methods. The man whose methods are crooked is the 
man whose game I would block. Those who complain know this 
perfectly well, and their complaining betrays them. Again, with 
honest money — I do not need any financier to tell me that a short- 
weight dollar is not an honest dollar to pay full- weight dollar debts 
with." 

We shall close this chapter with a list of the Roosevelt books. 
They include two works of history. One of these "The Naval War 
with Great Britain, " was written immediately after his college days, 
yet deals with the subject in a fresh and obviously fair manner which 
has made the book an authority. As a result of it he was invited by 
British publishers to write the chapter on this subject for the monu- 
mental v/ork, " History of the Royal Navy of England. " 

The other work spoken of is his four- volume " The Winning of 
the West, ' ' the largest and in its field the most valuable of his works. 
It takes up a subject not before dealt with and handles it admirably. 

In addition to these histories are several biographies, the " Life 
of Thomas Hart Benton, " "Life of Gouverneur Morris, " and " Oliver 
Cromwell. " He is also the author of " New York City: a History, " 
and, in conjunction with H. C. Lodge, of " Hero Tales from American 
History." 



144 ROOSEVELT AS SCHOLAR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 

His books devoted to hunting life and adventure are full of 
interesting incidents and graphic descriptions of the habits of animals. 
They include "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman;" "Ranch Life and 
Hunting Trail," "American Big-game Hunting," and "The Wilder- 
ness Hunter, ' ' with contributions to other works, one of these being 
on " The Deer and Antelope of North America. ' ' In addition are the 
books of the Boone and Crockett Club, including " Hunting in Many- 
Lands, " and "Trail and Campfire. " His hunting adventures in 
Africa have been detailed in his interesting contributions to " Scrib- 
ner's Magazine, " and will be given the world in the near future in a 
work he has ready for publication. 

Other works from his pen are "American Ideals, and other Es- 
says" and "The Strenuous Life" (collections of magazine contri- 
butions); also "The Rough Riders," and "The Philippines" (made 
up of contributions by himself and William H. Taft). The " Maxims 
of Theodore Roosevelt" is a collection of his virile sayings. 

We have here a varied and somewhat voluminous list of books, 
doubtless to be followed by various others, now that he has before 
him a period of private life. That it will be a period of non-per- 
formance is out of the question with a man of his disposition. He 
is at present an editorial worker on the Outlook, and will very 
likely find abundant new work for his facile pen. V/hat he has already 
done shows us that it will be work of a practical nature and that, 
fond as he is of the poets, he is not likely, like Mr. Wegg, to " drop 
into poetry. ' ' 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Most Skilful Politician of the Century 

OOKING back over what has been said in the preceding i^ges 
in regard to the Roosevelt poHcies, and endeavoring to weigh 
their significance the fact stands out that President Roosevelt 
has proved himself a man of unusual political acumen. He seems 
always to have known what he wanted and in most cases succeeded in 
getting it. He has been no headlong " bull in a china shop, " thresh- 
ing about blindly, swinging the "big stick" with heedless hand. 
This sort of comment is well enough for the columns of irresponsible 
newspaper editors, but thinking men long since perceived in Theodore 
Roosevelt a man of phenomenal ability in public affairs and one who 
had it in him to climb to the top of the political tree. 

Almost at the start of his political career men of discernment 
saw in him evidence of remarkable powess. While he was a member 
of the New York Legislature, a very young man, with very little 
experience in the art of legislation, Andrew D. White, President of 
Cornell College, showed surprising foresight in this remark to his 
class : 

" Young gentlemen, some of you will enter public life. I call 
your attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our Legislature. He 
is on the right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future 
for a young man, but let me tell you that if any man of his age was 
ever pointed straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roose- 
velt. " 

George W. Curtis, then the popular editor of Harper's "Easy 
Chair," also looked forward into the future, with similar clear insight. 
His words spoken in answer to a comment on the youth of Mr. Roose- 
velt and the little that was known of him outside his own State, were 
as follows: 

" You'll know more, sir, later; a good deal more, or I am much 
in error. Young? Why, he is just out of school almost, yet he is a 
lo (145) 



146 THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 

force to be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be 
criticising or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and 
-experience of his elders, none of them can move him an iota from con- 
victions as to mi en and measures once formed and rooted. He will not 
truckle nor cringe, he seems to court opposition to the point of being 
somewhat pugnacious. His political life will probably be a turbulent 
one, but he will be a figure, not a figurehead, in future development — 
or if not it will be because he gives up politics altogether. " 

There must have been something very unusual in Theodore 
Roosevelt from the start, to call forth such confident opinions from 
such men at so early a date in his career. The man was in many ways 
unusual. From the very start he made his mark in political life. 
And this m.ark was stamped deeper and broader at every point in his 
later career. Turbulent! Yes, his career was that undoubtedly. 
But he. knew well how to steer his boat over the troubled waters 
of political life, and never got caught in one of those swirling eddies 
that have landed m.any promiising men high and dry on the banks. 
He kept steadily in the centre of the cuiTcnt, which brought him at 
length, as had been predicted, to the highest goal of political attain- 
ment, that of President of the great Amierican republic. 

This development did not com^e through chance. It was no out- 
come of blind luck. It was the natural, shall we not say the inevi- 
table, ultim.ate of the character and ability of the man whom we have 
designated as the most skilful politician of the century. The assas- 
sination of President McKinley merely hastened the result. Even 
without that Theodore Roosevelt would have reached the Presidency. 
As Mr. White had said, he was pointed straight for that goal. 

In what did his expertness consist ? Largely in stepping aside 
from the well-worn rut of ordinary political movement and making fOx" 
himself a new path, adopting a new role, one which he was admirably 
adapted by nature to fill. 

To pose as a moral leader in the quagrmire of political corruption 
of that day and place, to have the >tr =ngth and persistency to force 
his measures into favorable consideT ation, needed the greatest courage 
and energy. It needed more thaix this, it called for a strong innate 
conviction that the course he was pursuing was the coiTcct one and 



THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 147 

that he would be recreant to his trust if he yielded for a moment m 
his self-appointed task. 

But he not only knew what was the right thing to do, he knew 
instinctively how to do it, and it was by this knowledge he won — 
then, and at many times later. To quote an old adage, he " appealed 
from Philip drunk to Philip sober;" from the legislative body, drunk 
with fraudulent practices, to the people at large, sober in its final 
decision. 

This has been his strong hold throughout. He has constantly 
appealed to the higher sentim.ent of the people, placed himiself on 
record as an advocate of political integrity and reform, addressed 
his messages more to the American public than to the American Con- 
gress, touched the public pulse with a mailtitude of orations defining 
his purposes and aspirations, and kept himself ever as an earnest 
advocate before the bar of public opinion. 

He never had occasion to creep and crawl, to hide himself from 
sight in the devious paths of party politics. He fought ever in the 
open, and for what the great public wanted ; the cleaning of the polit- 
ical quagmire. Everything he said touched a responsive chord in 
the public mind. There was no prevarication, no effort to make 
the worse appear the better reason; everything was direct and 
straightforward ; in every utterance he " hit the line hard, ' ' and the 
people rose in response and backed him up sturdily in a hundred 
measures which without this support would have been sidetracked. 

We have already, in our third chapter, told the story of the first 
act that made him known favorably to the people at large. It may 
be read there how, almost at the advent of his legislative career, he 
rose in his seat and demanded that Judge Westbrook should be 
impeached for corruption in office. It was the first "bolt from the 
blue" m his long war against legislative and official dishonor. 

The leaders sought to quiet him, but he was not to be quieted. 
They calmly voted down his motion, but he set his teeth, squared 
his shoulders and fought on. Day after day he was on his feet, 
pounding away, The roar of the contest r^a.hed the public ear. 
The newspapers took it up. The people learned of the rottenness in 
their high places. Public opinion rose in support of tne young 



148 THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 

advocate of public honesty. The legislature dared no longer put 
itself on record as a supporter of corruption. Roosevelt won his fight 
by an almost unanimous vote. 

It was no small acknowledgment of superior ability for so 
young a man to be made his party's candidate for Speaker in his 
third year, and in his final year to be chosen as a delegate to the State 
and the National Republican Conventions. The legislative results 
of his three years' service were the passage of reform bills which 
aided greatly in purifying political methods in New York City. 

Roosevelt's entire political career was upon the same elevated 
plane as that of his early service. He had seen the crying need of 
a reform in the method of selecting public servants and in 1884 had 
carried through the legislature a Civil Service Reform law for New 
York City. It was this that brought him in 1889 the appointment 
by President Harrison to membership on the Civil Service Com- 
mission chosen to reform the Federal methods. 

That body needed new life in its veins. It had been a moribund 
committee, doing nothing in the old-fashioned official method. 
Roosevelt shook it up into phenomenal activity. What he did as a 
member of that committee has been told in a previous chapter. His 
retention on it by President Cleveland, and the latter 's final testi- 
monial to the value of his services, prove that he had won the high 
regard of his political opponents by his non-partisan efficiency in 
office. Though an earnest member of the Republican party, he had 
vigorously insisted throughout that selection to public office should 
be made solely on the basis of fitness, not at all on that of party 
service. 

The same non-partisan activity was displayed in his subsequent 
service on the Police Board of New York City. It was quickly made 
evident that the hand of a wholesale reformer was at the helm. The 
metropolitan police force, through years of easy methods, had become 
cobwebbed with con'uption. Graft infiltrated it at every pore. 
In KipHng's words, its motto was " Pay! Pay! Pay ! ' ' All Tammany 
asked for was cash. The right to break almost any law could be 
cheaply bought and this right was freely exercised. 

Roosevelt inaugurated, not a revolt, but a revolution. He had 



THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICLAN OF THE CENTURY 149 

been chosen as an officer of the law, and he was there to enforce the 
law, whoever might be hurt. His energy was tempestuous, his 
results were surprising. Never before had New York seen such a 
shaking up. A reform administration, under Mayor Strong, was in 
office, and the resolute young Police Commissioner was supported in 
his most radical acts. In a year or two's time he had converted a 
corrupt and largely worthless into an honest and efficient police force 
and brought the New York police service to a new and high standard 
of achievement. 

It cannot justly be said that Commissioner Roosevelt was doing 
this with any thought of political effect. We should say that he was 
simply moved by a stern determination to do his duty — ^but for all 
that his actions had great political effect. The name of the young 
crusader against corruption became widely known. There was a 
picturesqueness about his methods and a thoroughness in his results 
that became the talk of the country, and the New York police chief 
won a national reputation. 

The events of his subsequent career added to this immensely. 
As Assistant Secretary of the Navy — a position to which his effi- 
ciency on the New York Police Board lifted him — he displayed the 
same characteristics. He foresaw the coming war and prepared the 
navy for it by insisting that the men should have abundant training 
at the guns. It was he that sent Dewey to the East — he had gauged 
the calibre of the man — kept his squadron intact and well supplied, 
and had it ready to be launched against Manila when the psychologi- 
cal moment came. 

We must briefly pass over what followed, his instant joining the 
army when the war began, the happy idea of organizing the Rough 
Riders regiment — a sort of Wild West show that immensely tickled 
the public fancy and put Roosevelt into the forefront of popular 
interest at the start. His reputation was enormously added to by 
the events of the brief war, including the vivid newspaper accounts of 
his wild charge up San Juan hill and his impulsive breaking of pre- 
cedent by the famous "round-robin" letter through which th® men 
were rescued from the deplorable effects of the malarious Cuban 
climate. 

Roosevelt had worked, if not designedly, at least wisely. His 



ISO THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 

fearlessness before the enemy was probably the result of native 
intrepidity; his round-robin protest, of irrepressible indignation 
a^jainst the slack methods of the military authorities; but these 
raised him immensely in public estimation and he came home the 
popular hero of the war. He had been defeated years before in a 
contest for the office of Mayor of New York City; his new popularity 
gave him victory in a contest for the office of governor of New York 
State, and his record as a consistent reformer in this brought him the 
nomination of Vice-President of the United States — partly as a result 
of his prominence, partly through the desire of the New York politi- 
cians to shelve this irrepressible apostle of reform in a position in 
which his hands would be tied. All know the lamentable incident 
that untied his hands and made him President. 

Theodore Pvoosevelt would have been a man of prominence in 
political life and a worker for reform at almost any time in the history 
of our country, but fortune willed that he should come into the office 
of President at a date excellently fitted for a man of his calibre to 
make his work effective. For years before great business corpora- 
tions had been forming throughout the country, gaining the control 
of enormous wealth, largely through acts in defiance of law, and 
becoming more and more heedless of public opinion through long 
impunity in ill doing. 

On the other hand, a strong public opinion was growing and 
crystallizing against these corporations and their methods. On all 
sides they were being keenly attacked by newspaper and magazine 
writers, the great publo was kept advised as to their oppressive and 
illegal acts, and its indignation was steadily augmenting. What was 
wanted was an able and aggressive leader to this new-grown public 
opinion, and Theodore Roosevelt was at hand to become that leader. 

By nature, training and opinion he was splendidly adapted to 
the task before him. He put himself at the head of the army of 
reform, led it forward with innate energy, trained his guns on the 
enemy and thimdered away into their ranks almost day and night. 
The foe was strong ; it had powerful support in Congress ; he did not 
achieve all he set out to do ; but he won more than one notable 
victory, and put the country in the way of finally bringing to an end 
the wi3ole evil. 



THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 151 

This, it may be said, was less the result of political skill than of 
innate tendency as a refomier and of energy as a fighter. But in 
such a fight as President Roosevelt had to wage other qualities were 
needed. Judgment, good sense, political foresight, timely yielding 
to expediency; willingness to accept a modicum of good, if the whole 
good was not to be had ; insight into the character of men and in the 
choice of aids ; an appreciation of the rights of both sides to a con- 
troversy and an earnest desire to do the just thing for both. He 
knew well what he wanted, but knew also that progress in reform, 
as in journeying, can be miade only step by step, and in all this he had 
the equipment of a skilful political leader, a man born to rule and 
control. 

One of his biographers tells us: "President Roosevelt is not a 
.genius. He is a man of no extraordinary mental capacity. Such 
prestige as he enjoys above his fellows he has acquired partly by hard 
work and partly by using his mother- wit in his choice of tasks and 
his method of tackling them. ' ' 

A woman reformer, who was seeking for some hero fitted to 
emibody her high ideals, is quoted as saying of him : " I always 
wanted to make Roosevelt out that, but, somichow, every time he 
did something that seemied really great it turned out upon looking at 
it closely, that it was only just the right thing to do. ' ' 

This embodies a happy complim.ent to his instinctive powers. 
We may add to it an incident that took place when he was Civil 
Service Commissioner. In his impetuous manner he had spoken his 
mind very plainly to a Cabinet official who had dallied with the truth. 
A person who was present afterwards remarked plaintively: " It was 
very discourteous treatment for Commissioner Roosevelt to visit upon 
an officer of so much higher rank. Why, he actually accused him of 
lying." After a mioment's pause he continued in a like plaintive 
tone: " And what was worse, he went on and proved it ! " 

From all this we gain some definite conception of the qualities of 
nature and training which have given Theodore Roosevelt such a 
high standing am^ong the political leaders of the United States. This 
no doubt, has had a reflex influence upon the world at large, but it 
does not fully account for that far-flung reputation which has aroused 



152 THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 

all Europe to admiration and induced one of his admirers to suggest 
making him the President of the World. 

The lords of European politics are not so interested in trans- 
atlantic affairs as that. They look upon our ex- President not as an 
American product, but as a world prodigy. The war-lords of the 
world envy and admire him as the only one among them who has 
taken part and won glory in battle, and also as the man who has 
brought the American navy up to the level of efficiency of the best 
navies of Europe. The peace-advocates of the world — a great and 
growing number — look upon him as the greatest recent power in 
the interests of "peace on earth, good will to men." While the 
European statesmen were hesitating in doubt lest they might break 
down some cherished wall of precedent he boldly stepped into the 
breach and took measures which brought the sanguinary Russo- 
Japan war to an end. And he infused new vitality into the Hague 
peace tribunal, putting in train a movement which has led to a great 
increase in its power and influence. These services it was that led 
the Nobel Committee to choose him as the greatest leader in the 
movement for international peace. And to his services in this field 
he has recently added by his fertile suggestion of the fonnation of a 
great League of Peace. 

In these and other ways Roosevelt has enormously strengthened 
the foreign policy of our government. Under his administration we 
bound the Powers of Europe to safeguard the teiritory of China 
during the Russo-Japan war. We gave back to China the unjustly 
exacted portion of the Boxer indemnity. We concluded treaties of 
arbitration with nearly all the great Powers and it was our activity 
in this field that gave its present prominence to the Hague peace 
tribunal. We have undertaken the building of the great Panama 
Canal and pushed forward the work on it with unprecedented rapidity 
and energy. We have satisfied our sister republics of our friendly 
feeling toward them and gone far in the task of binding all the natives 
of this hemisphere into a great American league. Our colonial policy 
has been wisely carried out and the people of the colonies made fully 
aware of our good intentions in their interest. We have taught 
Europe the true meaning of our aims and purposes. And in all this 



THE MOST SKILFUL POLITICIAN OF THE CENTURY 153 

Theodore Roosevelt has been the leader and in many cases the 
inciter. 

In him then we have a statesman nowhere else now equaled ; a 
man whose views spread far beyond our national limits and make 
the world their field, and before whom Europe has bowed down in 
admiration as before a new star that has risen in the West. 



BOOK THREE 



THE AFRICAN TRIP AND 
BIG GAME 

Conflicts With Wild Beasts on the Roosevelt-Smithsonian 
Hunting Expedition 



(155) 




CHAPTER XXI 

From New York to Mombasa 

^N the morning of March 5, 1909, Theodore Roosevelt, as we may 
well judge, roused from sleep with a fervent sense of freedom 
and exhilaration. He had cast off the weight of political 
responsiblity which had laid heavily upon him for nearly eight years, 
and at last was free from the burdens of office and in a position to enjoy 
to its full a genuine holiday. 

That ''Call of the Wild" which had rung in his ears in his younger 
days and led him west to the companionship of the cowboy and the 
perils of the hunting field, was ringing again in his ears. A born 
huntsman, with a native love of adventure and a strong zest for 
stirring and perilous scenes, the "Call of the Wild" now drew him in 
a different direction, to that African wilderness which is the haunt of 
the most savage and dangerous beasts on the face of the earth. 
Hunting in America is a tame and mild enjoyment compared with 
hunting in Africa. We have the grizzly bear, to be sure, a foe not 
safe to despise. But there may be found the elephants, the rhinoceros, 
the buffalo, the lion, creatures to be challenged on their native soil 
only by the most hardy and daring of men. 

It was not alone these lordly beasts that our huntsman had to 
fear. The district he sought is one where lurk deadly diseases, fevers 
that enervate the frame, that mysterious "sleeping sickness'' from 
whose slumbers few awake, disorders that lie in wait for those not 
native to tropical climes; and earnest warnings were sent the ex- 
President that he was going to his doom, that in the African fevers he 
would find foes tenfold more deadly than the wildest beasts. 

So far as we know all this rather whetted Roosevelt's appetite for 
these new hunting fields than deterred him from them. We cannot 
say that he is devoid of the faculty of fear, but he has a happy faculty 
of concealing it. He had thrown off the harness of the Presidency, 

(157) 



158 FEDM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 

which had fettered him so long. He had refused to hsten to the voice 
of the tempter, which told him that the White House and the Presi- 
dent's chair still awaited him and were his to be had for the asking. No, 
he had amply earned a holiday and was determined to have it — "a 
holiday as is a holiday," in the midst of the African wilds and in the 
presence of the earth's most terrible beasts. 

Eager to get away, to shake the dust of civilization from his feet, 
to breathe the free air of uncultured nature, to feel the thrill of new 
adventure, the released President hurried his preparations. The 
members of the expedition were carefully selected, the juvenile of the 
party being his youthful son Kermit, who was trained to be its photog- 
rapher, but who has since shown himself to be a true "chip of the old 
block" in his hunting intrepidity and success. 

Everything likely to be of need in the wild was carefully selected, 
with the judgment and skill of one who knew just what the hunter 
requires and what he can well do without. The sporting pieces 
especially were chosen with care, with the knowledge that life might 
often depend on the accuracy of the rifle and the trustworthy character 
of the ammunition. 

The 23d of March, less than three weeks from the close of his 
Presidential career, was the date selected by Mr. Roosevelt for his 
start, and as may be imagined his life was a busy one during that brief 
interval. It is interesting to state that one of the last visitors at 
Oyster Bay before his departure was his mountaineer companion, 
M. F. Cronin, the Adirondack guide and stage driver who, seven and 
a half years before, had brought h:m through his breakneck midnight 
drive to the railroad station at North Creek, a rough and headlong 
ride in which it is said a pair of horses was killed. 

Word had come of the perilous condition of President McKinley, 
and the bold driver felt that he was bringing a new President to his 
chair. Nov/, that his Presidential career was at an end, his moun- 
taineer fr'"end came to bid him godspeed on the eve of his setting out 
upon a new career. 

On the morning of March 23, 1909, ex-President Roosevelt set off 
on his long journey from Oyster Bay to Mombasa. The ride to New 
York was an ovation. At '^very station a crowd had gathered to wave 



FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 159 

good-bye and wish good luck to the departing hunter. On reaching 
the wharf of the Hamburg-American Line, where waited the ocean 
greyhound "Hamburg," ready to convey him to Naples, a cheering 
throng, thousands in number, awaited to give him an enthusiastic 
send-off. It was no easy matter to reach the deck of the steamier 
through this mass of admiring humanity. 

Many friends and members of his late administration accom- 
panied him on board, and as the great steamer slowly glided out from 
her dock the distinguished traveler stood on the captain's bridge, wav- 
ing a parting farewell with his black slouch hat. By his side stood his 
son, Kermit, both gladdened by the cheers of the friendly multitude. 

One of the latest and most pleasing incidents of the departure 
was the advent of a messenger from President Taft, who brought as 
a present a collapsable gold ruler, one foot long, with pencil attached, 
and inscribed as follows : 

"To Theodore Roosevelt from William Howard Taft. Good-bye 
and good luck. Best wishes for a safe return." 

That the outgoing traveler was highly pleased with this parting 
tribute need scarcely be said. The returning messenger bore back his 
grateful thanks. 

What shall we say of the voyage? What can be said other than 
of the innumerable voyages of innumerable tourists, whose principal 
aim is to prevent the journey from becomxing wearisomely monoto- 
nous. That there was little rest for Roosevelt on board ship, we may 
be sure. He is of the unresting type. Those who wished to interview 
him had to do so en route, for every day he v/alked a good ten miles 
to and fro on the deck. And the deck did not limit the range of his 
activity. He pervaded the ship. Not a part or a feature of it escaped 
his attention. From the bridge to the coal-heavers' den he made his 
way, everybody who knew anything was obliged to give vip his last 
item of useful information, and by the time shore was reached again 
the traveler had learned enough about life on shipboard to write a 
nautical novel. 

Meanwhile his diet was of the simplest, his meals being limited 
to two a day. The purpose of this abstemiousness v/r/? to keep down 
his weight. Lightness and agility were requisite m the purpose he 
had in view. 



i6o FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 

In former times the Atlantic traveler cut loose from the world. 
During his voyage the only world he knew was the cramped and 
narrow one bounded by the walls and decks of the ship. The ocean of 
tossing waves cut him off from all beside. But in these days we have 
''reformed all that." Wireless telegraphy keeps us in touch with the 
land we have left and the land to which we are bound, and all through 
his voyage the darting of the electric waves through hundreds of aerial 
miles told our traveler of what was being done on land and told the 
friends he had left the daily occurrences of his life at sea. 

One of these was rather startling. The news came that a crazed 
Italian, a steerage passenger, had sought to assassinate him and had 
been seized and fettered in the stronghold of the ship. It gave, how- 
ever, only a passing thrill to those at home, for it was quickly con- 
tradicted and proved to be based upon an event of small significance. 

The harbor of Fayal, in the Azores, was reached on March 29. 
Roosevelt landed at Horta, the island capital, and was taken a two 
hours' drive about the town by the governor. A second stop was made 
at Ponta Delgada, the largest city on the group and the third in size 
of Portuguese cities. Here the ex-President met with a real peril, far 
more dangerous than that of the crazed Italian. 

There was a rough sea on, so boisterous that only three passen- 
gers were willing to accompany the intrepid Roosevelt in the small 
boat that took him ashore. It was on his return, after visiting the 
United States Consul and seeing the city, that the peril was encoun- 
tered. The small boat was tossed about like a cockle-shell on the 
unquiet sea, and as it neared the ship was dashed violently against its 
side. At the same time a ten-foot wave rolled over it, drenching the 
travelers to the waist. Roosevelt coolly waited his chance, made a 
leap at the right moment, his hand was caught by the first officer, and 
in an instant more he was safe on board. 

The next stopping place was at Gibraltar, which was reached on 
April 2. Here Colonel Roosevelt had the opportunity to make a thor- 
ough inspection of this impregnable outlying fortress of Great Britain. 
Certain festivities also took place, including a dinner and a dance, in 
which Roosevelt, who is little given to "twirl the light fantastic toe," 
consented to open the ball with Miss Draper, one of his traveling 



FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA i6i 

companions. Here also he made a brief speech, ending humorously 
with the words: 

"Everybody has been very kind to me, but I think it must be an 
infernal nuisance to have a retired President on board." 

Three days later, on April 5, the harbor of Naples was entered, 
the "Hamburg" reaching her voyage end at that great and famous 
metropolis of Southern Italy. Roosevelt's stay here was to be short, but 
it was one of continuous ovation. As the great steamer entered the 
harbor it was greeted by a deafening peal of steam whistles, the music 
of many bands, and a splendid show of bunting from the vessels of 
all types and nations that occupied the ample bay. There was present 
an Italian warship and a multitude of other craft, all gay with flags 
and bunting from stem to stern. 

On land the welcome was as enthusiastic. Had our plain Ameri- 
can tourist been a conquering king returning from a glorious cam- 
paign, he could not have been received more heartily by the vast crowd 
assembled to gaze on the late head of the American republic. Floral 
oflferings were superabundant, among them a great group of red, white 
and black carnations from Emperor William and a splendid garland 
of fragrant blooms from the Empress. A letter from the Emperor 
accompanied the gift, cordially inviting him to stop at Berlin on his 
return and ending with "Hail to the successful huntsman!" 

On landing, the Hotel Excelsior was sought, where the traveler 
met various Italian officials and was greeted by scores of prominent 
Americans. He subsequently had an interview with the Duke and 
Duchess of Aosta in their splendid palace at Capodimente, affairs of 
state preventing the King of Italy from meeting him during his brief 
stay. 

From Naples the traveler proceeded to Messina, the scene of the 
recent devastating earthquake. His observations here were condensed 
in a telegraph cable message in which he warmly praised the splendid 
work done at Messina and Reggio with the building lumber shipped 
from this country. Visiting the American camp, he found two hun- 
dred and fifty houses already completed and arrangements made for 
the rapid construction of one thousand two hundred and fifty more. 
The work was under the general direction of Ambassador Griscom 

11 



1 62 FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 

and the immediate care of Lieutenant-Commander Belknap, assisted 
by other navy officers. Working mider these were forty able sailors 
and a number of stalwart American carpenters. "In addition," he 
concluded, "there is a fine group of Americans, such as J. Elliott, Win- 
throp Chandler, J. Bush and R. Hale, who are giving their time and 
energies to help the philanthropic work. I wish to say that I consider 
that the American people are deeply indebted to each and every one of 
these men." 

Two days only were given to the sightseeing at Naples and Mes- 
sina, with the arrival and departure, the Roosevelt party leaving on 
the 6th in the steamer "Admiral," which was to carry them to Mom- 
basa. A matter of some minor interest is that, while on board the 
"Hamburg," an army surgeon presented him with a syringe filled with 
an antivenom for snake poison. This was to guard him against pos- 
sible perils more insidious than those likely to come from wild beasts. 
How efficacious it would be apt to prove is another question. 

As may be seen, Colonel Roosevelt had lost little time so far in 
sightseeing on land. He would have enough of shore experience on 
reaching Africa; now straightforward to Mombasa was the cry. 
From Naples the "Admiral" sped through the most historic waters of 
the world, those of the eastern Mediterranean, the scene of the com- 
merce and naval wars of Phoenicia, Greece, Carthage and Rome. 
Passing Port Said and worming its way through the narrow channel 
of the Suez Canal, it kept on down the Red Sea, famous principally 
for its tropic heats. 

The only stop was made at Aden, at the extremity of Arabia, and 
this a brief one. Thence the steamer plunged into the waters of the 
Indian Ocean for its final goal at Mombasa. 

This final lap of the voyage lasted a week, its only Interesting 
incident being a dinner given by the captain of the "Admiral" to his 
distinguished passenger, the table being finely decorated and speeches 
and toasts being features of the occasion. 

Mombasa was reached on April 21, the total voyage having taken 
rather less than a month. The "Admiral" entered Kilindin harbor in a 
heavy rain, almost a deluge, the water pouring in drenching floods. 
The steamer flew the American flag at fore and main, .which was 
saluted by the British cruiser "Pandora," then lying in the harbor. 



FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 163 

Darkness had fallen, but Roosevelt and his son lost no time in 
leaving the ship, being taken ashore in the commandant's surf boat 
and carried to a place of shelter in chairs on the shoulders of stalwart 
natives. 

Such \vas the landing on Africa's shores, at night, in a downpour 

of rain, and on the shoulders of natives of the soil. But Colonel Roose- 

. velt had no thought of bad omens. He was in splendid health and 

eager for the start to the hunting grounds, which he said he could not 

reach a. minute too soon. 

A military guard was drawn up to receive him and a picturesque 
crowd of Europeans, East Indians and negroes crowded to gaze upon 
the famous American potentate, while the governor of the place gave 
him a cordial welcome. He had intended to stay two days at Mom- 
basa, but the flood of rain induced a change of plan, and on the fol- 
lowing day he set out on a special train for the ranch of Sir Alfred 
Pease, where his first fortnight was to be spent. 

With this story of how Roosevelt reached Africa, let us proceed to 
describe the make-up of his expedition and the purpose for which this 
long journey was undertaken. That the desire to see the greatest 
animals of the world in their native haunts and to enjoy the exciting 
experience of facing these great creatures in a state of freedom, with 
an opportunity to fight for their lives, was a moving influence in his 
journey no one can justly doubt But that he sought the African jun- 
gle moved solely by what the censorious Frenchman said was the Ene- 
lishman's spirit: "Good morning; it is a fine day; let us go out and kill 
something," we should be loath to afiirm. For back of Roosevelt's 
journey was a scientific purpose, for which we must give him due 
credit. 

It is not 'The Roosevelt African Expedition," but rather "The 
Smithsonian African Expedition," with which we are concerned, for 
it was outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution and its underlying pur- 
pose was to collect specimens of the African mammalia for this great 
educational institution. Mr. Roosevelt, it is true, proposed to pay his 
own expenses and those of his son Kermit, including their outfit and 
transportation, but he simply proposed to obtain an adult specimen of 
each sex of the big African game, and also of the smaller mammals 



j64 from new YORK TO MOMBASA 

and birds so far as possible, and to do no other killing than was 
necessary to supply the camp with meat. The specimens collected 
were to be deposited in the United States National Museum for scien- 
tific study. Mr. Roosevelt has added more than any other man to our 
knowledge of the big game of the United States, and we can appre- 
ciate the desire of the Smithsonian scientists to secure the services of 
a man of his training in field life and the pursuit of big game to add 
10 their scientific treasures. 

The men who believe in the study of the mammal and the bird in 
their living state and in their native haunts, the hunting with the field 
glass rather than with the rifle, know the advantage of museum col- 
lections in order that field identification may be made certain and that 
the life study of mammals may be stimulated, and the purpose of these 
scientists was to secure such a valuable addition to its educational 
exhibit, for the use of students who need such material for compara- 
tive purposes. 

The true nature lover gets the zest of outdoor life, the sense of 
the freshness and beauty of things to be obtained from a trip afield, 
and to obtain these laudable experiences it is not necessary to keep 
his rifle constantly at work, shooting at every crack of a twig or rustle 
of a leaf. And that Theodore Roosevelt has in his make-up much of 
this wholesome spirit everyone who is familiar with his history must 
acknowledge. 

Back of this, however, there is also in him the spirit of the 
hunter, the zest of the bold heart's impulse, the love of facing and 
overcoming peril, the intense excitement of putting his own life in 
pawn in a struggle with a dangerous antagonist, and while feeling that 
science would be benefited by the results of his adventurous journey, 
there was in it much of the heroic spirit that moved him when he 
charged up San Juan Hill in the face of the Spanish batteries. His 
skill and daring were to cope w^ith the strength and alertness of the 
lords of the wilds and the soul of the soldier stirred within him as much 
as the spirit of the scientist. 

Mr. Roosevelt and the scientists of the Smithsonian were already 
familiar with every kind of big game that he was likely to encounter. 
As for the leader of the expedition, he had the name of every species 



FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 165 

of antelope at his instant command and bore a picture in his mind of 
every kind of creature that through his instrumentahty might be added 
to the National Museum's stores. During his last months in the White 
House a portion of the President's time was given over to the study of 
the fauna of that part of Africa which the American caravan would 
traverse. The smaller mammals and the birds had not been left out of 
Mr. Roosevelt's calculations. The scientific interest in a wild creature 
is not gauged by its size; the mouse has its interest no less than the 
lion. • 

The expedition into Africa was thoroughly equipped. Every- 
thing that knowledge of conditions could suggest had its place in the 
outfit. The quarry that was secured was instantly prepared for trans- 
portation. The skins and the hides were well salted and dried, and 
packed in a way that made their preservation certain. Such skeletons 
as were to be saved, and the skulls which were of first value for com- 
parative purposes, were cared for as only field scientists knew how, 
and the collected treasures of the African trip were brought to Wash- 
ington in a condition to delight the hearts of the government scientists. 

We give below the names and personality of the members of the 
Smithsonian African Expedition. Of Theodore Roosevelt it is not 
necessary to write. What he has done as a scientist and as a hunter 
is known to all. 

Dr. and Colonel Edgar A. Mearns, United States army (retired), 
is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 
City. He has been in the military service for twenty-six years and 
during that time while on field duty and on detached service he has 
pursued his zoological studies. Admittedly Dr. Mearns is one of the 
first field naturalists of the country, and his reports and books are ac- 
knowledged authorities. His publications include studies of mammals, 
birds and plants. He was the naturalist accredited by the govern- 
ment to the Mexican boundary expedition, and as the result of his 
researches the scientific world has the work entitled "Mammals of the 
Mexican Boundary of the United States." This work includes a 
summary of the natural history of the region covered, with a list of 
the trees of the country adjacent to the boundary. Dr. Mearns knows 
birds as he knows mammals, and his knowledge of American ornith- 



i66 FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 

ology is second to none, while he is one of the most successful surgeons 
and physicians in the service list. He is inured to the hardships of 
field life. He is a good shot and a good companion. Of him a Wash- 
ington scientist who has been in the field with him time and again 
has said of him: "He is the kindest man I ever knew. If it is cold he 
wants you to take his coat in addition to your own ; if it is hot he wants 
to help take off your coat before he will take off his own. He knows 
nothing of contention and no man can be found to make a better camp 
companion." 

Edmund Heller Is a graduate of Stanford University of the Class 
of 1901. He is a thoroughly trained naturalist, whose special Vv'ork 
was the preparation and preservation of specimens of the large ani- 
mals that the expedition secured. Mr. Heller w^ent with Carl E. 
Akeley into Africa on a collecting trip for the Field Columbian ]\Iu- 
seum. The expedition was successful in every way. Mr. Eleller has 
conducted successful scientific excursions into Alaska and through the 
Death Valley. In the latter place he followed the trail which Dr. C. 
Hart Merriman, of the Biological Survey of Washington, had taken 
some years before and in a large measure he duplicated the Merriam 
collecting achievement. Mr. Heller has explored and collected in 
Mexico and in Central America, and it is said of him that he "always 
has made good." He has the faculty of making friends and never in 
the course of any of his expeditions has there been the slightest trouble 
with the natives. 

J. Alden Loring, of Oswego, N. Y., is known as a successful col- 
lector of birds and small mammals. In addition to this Mr. Loring 
is a field naturalist who understands the preservation of skins in all 
climates. He was attached for some time to the United States Bio- 
logical Survey, and later he was connected with the Bronx Zoological 
Park, New York City. Mr. Loring has made field trips in various 
parts of the United States, British America and Mexico. The United 
States National Museum once sent him abroad as a traveling collector 
of small mammals. In three months of field work in Sweden, Bel- 
gium, Germany and Switzerland he collected and shipped 900 speci- 
mens all carefully prepared. This stands as a record-breaking field 
achievement. Men who have been in the field with Mr. Loring say 



FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 167 

that it is impossible to discourage him, and that his hopefulness and 
spirit make things cheerful on every day that otherwise would be a 
blue day in camp. 

If preparation, enthusiasm, energy and ability to shoot straight, 
count as they should count, the Smithsonian African Expedition under 
the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt was one that has rarely been 
surpassed and its fitness for its work was amply shown by its valuable 
results. Such a collection of specimens of African zoology was never 
before made, and he succeded in enriching the collections of the 
Smithsonian Institution to an extraordinary degi^ee, greatly to the 
advantage of biological science in America. His duplicate specimens 
aid in enriching other museums, even those of London, already well 
supplied with the larger mammals, yet glad to get many specimens 
of smaller vertebrate animals which he generously contributed to 
them 



CHAPTER XXII 

The East African Railroad 

ANDING at Mombasa the Roosevelt party boarded a train on 
the Uganda Railway to begin the long trip of more than five 
hundred miles from the east coast of Africa to the great Lake 
of Victoria Nyanza. 

This long journey may be divided into three principal stages : The 
Jungles, the Plains and the Mountains. The first quarter of an hour is 
spent in traversing the island on which the city of Mombasa is built, 
and the train reaches the mainland by a long iron bridge which spans 
the separating channel. Westward the train runs, winding around 
among the uneven spots of the country on a fairly steep up grade, the 
landscape luxuriantly covered with vegetation thickly peopled with birds 
and butterflies of brilliant and beautiful colors. Palms and creeper- 
covered trees rise out of the glades on either hand, making a panorama 
of tropical vegetation calculated to prepare the traveler's eye for the 
wonderful luxuriance of Central Africa. 

For it must be remembered that this railroad has been built only 
a few years, and principally as a means of transporting men and goods 
between Mombasa, the seaport on the eastern coast, and the rich Pro- 
tectorate of Uganda, which lies on the north and northeastern shores 
of the enormous Lake Victoria Nyanza. 

Mombasa is a town of more than 20,000 population, and was 
acquired by the British East African Company in 1890 from Zanzibar. 
It was occupied by the Portuguese in 1505, and towards the end of the 
sixteenth century a fort was built there. These possessors, however, 
were driven out in 1698, and in 1834 the city passed into the control of 
Zanzibar. It is a naval coaling station, and as the terminus of the 
Uganda Railway an important commercial port for the traffic into the 
interior of Africa. 

The Uganda Railway, although built primarily as a political neces- 

(168) 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 169 

sity in order to secure Britain's hold upon the rich inland states ot 
Africa, is actually paying its way, which it was not expected to do 
within any reasonable period. Nearly fifty thousand dollars a mile 
were spent upon its construction, and every few miles are neat little 
stations with their ticket offices, water tanks, signals and flower beds, 
just as in a civilized country, though on all sides of them is the thick 
jungle of the tropics. Every telegraph post is numbered, the grades 
and curves are in line with modern development, and the trains, 
modelled upon the Indian railway pattern, are practically comfortable. 

As the train winds inland and upward the traveler forgets that 
he is under the equator, until at a height of 4,000 feet above the sea 
the jungle changes into forest, characteristic of a cooler climate than 
the tangled luxuriance of the jungles. Farther on the railway emerges 
into the plains. Vast fields of green grass intersected by streams, 
densely wooded with dark trees and coarse scrub, are broken by rough 
ridges and hills. Here right from the railway train can be seen 
crowds of wild animals, herds of antelope and gazelle, zebras, wilde- 
beeste, hartebeeste, wild ostriches and small deer. At Simba is a 
fruitful hunting ground. Lions and giraffes are abundant, and they 
say that in the early days of the railroad a rhinoceros measured his 
strength against the engine on the tracks with disastrous results to 
himself, after which the rest of his tribe retired to the river beds at 
some distance from the railway. 

A favorite way of shooting game in this section is to ride up and 
down the line on a trolley. The animals are so accustomed to the 
passage of trains and natives that they do not suspect danger unless 
the moving object stops. Accordingly the sportsman drops off the 
car and allows it to pass on, frequently finding himself within range of 
some of the big game of Africa. 

If anyone were asked the reasonable question why the multitude 
of animals which frequent the railway zone do so with such utter con- 
fidence and such lack of fear of their natural enemy, man, the answer 
is that they are protected within this zone, shooting being forbidden 
within a fixed distance of tlie railway, except in the case of such dan- 
gerous brutes as the lion, the leopard, the hyena and the rhinoceros. 
The strange thing is that the animals have come to recognize this fact 



I70 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

and avail themselves of it. No one has issued a bulletin in animal 
language to the effect that a treaty of peace has been signed between 
man and beast, so far as this region is concerned. Yet the fact is that 
since the shooting of innocent creatures has ceased within the railway 
zone, it can be traversed in safety from the death-dealing bullet, and 
its native inhabitants have come to recognize this interesting fact. 

Much has been written in past times concerning the intelligence 
of animals. Some maintain that they are governed by instinct only, 
that they lack the faculties of thought and reason. But how are we 
to understand the fact just stated? Instinct is hereditary. It must 
develop as a native possession of the creature concerned. It cannot 
cover the question of adaptation to new conditions, unknown to the 
ancestry of the animal. We cannot well escape from the conclusion 
that thought is here involved, the power of recognizing a new situa- 
tion and taking advantage of it. In the small brain of the antelope, 
the ostrich or the girafife must awaken some such conception as : "This 
place is safe. We hear no more the thunder and see no more the 
blinding flash of those black tubes in the hands of two-legged mur- 
derers, and no more behold our fellows fall dead. Safety dwells near 
the thunder engine ; we can trust ourselves there.'* 

And this is not all. They not only say this to themselves, but 
seem able to tell the glad tidings to their fellows, so that multitudes 
of diverse creatures gather there in utter trust. Or the mere fact 
that some of these creatures have ceased to fear the engine and its 
laden train may inspire others to the same trustfulness. 

The example of animal intelligence here seen is by no means con- 
fined to this corner of Africa. Something like it is known In many 
lands. It is a common experience of hunters that birds, which fly In 
fear from the vicinity of the gun-bearing man they have learned to 
dread, pay no heed to a passing wagon, experience having taught them 
that danger does not lurk within It. The protected animals within the 
Yellowstone National Park have learned a similar lesson and have 
ceased to fear man within its charmed boundaries. It is said that an 
elk, heedful and fearful outside Its bounds, puts on a different attitude 
when the magic limit is crossed, stalking about in proud confidence 
and seeming disdain of its native enemy. 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 171 

The fact is a strange one, and one Vv^hose significance cannot be 
ignored. It vastly widens our conception of the native intelligence of 
these lower forms of life. We cannot fail to admit that their brains 
work in somewhat the same manner as our own — not reaching as 
lofty conceptions, yet indicating powers of logical reasoning in the 
lower levels of thought. Certainly a significant evidence of this is 
the quickness with which the animal hosts of northeastern Africa have 
adapted themselves to the new situation, and seem to tell each other : 
" It is all right here. The thunder-wagon will not hurt you. You are 
safe where it passes. ' ' 

The state of affairs here described did not always exist in this 
region. Years before the arrival of Colonel Roosevelt and his train 
a very different condition prevailed. In the early days of the railway 
enterprise, when the building operations were in progress, no restric- 
tion to the methods of the hunter existed and it was a common prac- 
tice to shoot animals from the train. In those days, then, the happy 
confidence between man and brute did not exist and the approach of 
the engine was the signal for a wild scamper of the anim.als of the 
vicinity. They dreaded its approach then as much as they disregard 
it now. The animal intelligence of which we have spoken then acted 
to the opposite effect and the warning probably went out to avoid this 
death-dealing monster that had invaded their haunts. 

But victory in the fray between man and beast was not solely 
upon the side of man. Lions haunted the locality, and though the 
hunter has found this maned and roaring animal to be anything but 
the king of beasts of old tradition, but rather a lurking and sneaking 
tenant of the wilds that fears and avoids the hunter, yet there is a 
phase of his career in which his whole character seems to change. 

When the lion has once tasted human flesh he acquires an ardent 
liking for it and is apt to pursue man with an inordinate appetite, the 
man-eating lion becoming the terror of the locality in which he is 
found. He ceases in a measure to care for his customary food and 
lies in wait for man with the intense desire of an epicure of the wil- 
derness. 

We speak of this here from the fact that during the building of 
the railway a number of man-eating lions infested its locality and 



172 THE EAST AFRICAN' RAILROAD 

made such havoc among the workmen that the situation grew very 
serious. These men were largely East Indians, who did the work 
under the direction of English engineers, and at times the ravages 
of the man-eating lions became so great that the directors of the v/ork 
were at their wits' end how to deal with them. 

These ravening creatures displayed a fiendish cunning, lurking 
in the thickets about the huts of the workmen and making sudden 
night rushes into their habitations in which they usually succeeded in 
carrying off some helpless victim. Various methods were taken to 
prevent their raids, the villages being surrounded with fences of 
barbed wire, but the least defect in the defences offered an opportunity 
for the cunning prowlers and the work of devastation went on. 

One of the engineers tells a graphic story of his efforts to destroy 
one of these man-eaters and the keen intelligence with which it evaded 
his efforts. In vain would he lie in wait near the scene of some recent 
raid; the next day tidings would come that a group of huts several 
miles distant had been invaded and some victim snatched from his 
bed and borne oft* in the strong jaws of the powerful brute. And the 
hunter became the hunted, the lion stalked the engineer himself in his 
sleeping place and only good fortune saved him from becoming its 
prey. 

Finally, driven to desperation by the nightly loss of his men, he 
instituted a ceaseless hunt for the brute, watching for it from the 
branches of a tree near one of its accustomed haunts, and finally suc- 
ceeded in bringing it down. The hide of this Napoleon of the wilds 
now perhaps decorates some London drawing-room. 

Since the railway has been finished the lion has largely deserted 
its vicinity. The noise of the trains may have disturbed his sulky 
majesty and caused him to shun the line, and the stinging thud of the 
hunter's bullet may have aided in this, for the lion is not classed among 
the protected animals. 

Yet there are places where he may be seen from the train. Chief 
among these is Simba, "The Place of Lions," where the train pas- 
sengers may have the fortune to see a half dozen or more of these 
great carnivora stalking proudly across the plain, a respectful width 
being left for them by the smaller animals. At Nakaisu, one traveler 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD ^73 

incidentally tells us, he saw six yellow -lions walk leisurely across the 
track in broad daylight, and spectacles of this kind are not uncommon 
in this locality. It may be, however, that the tawny brute measures 
his distance and keeps out of easy rifle shot from the train. There is 
another animal which avoids the train, or rarely comes within view, 
this being the huge and surly rhinoceros, who does not like this near- 
ness of civilization and seeks in preference the wooded river beds and 
its native solitudes. 

The means of observing the splendid and well-peopled zoological 
garden through which the road runs is one of which Roosevelt was 
quick to avail himself, that in which the cow-catcher of the engine 
is used as an observation car. One does not need to seat himself, how- 
ever, on the iron bars, for an ordinary garden seat is fastened on to 
the engine front, resting upon the cow-catcher, and offering comfort- 
able accommodation for four or five sightseers, from which they may 
observe in ease and safety the interesting country through which they 
are borne. 

It sliould here be said that the road, though running through the 
heart of what was so lately a savage country, is admirably well built, 
its track neatly smoothed and ballasted, its grades and curves being 
like those of a well-appointed road in a civilized land, and the trains 
running along as smoothly and evenly as upon a European or Ameri- 
can line. 

This road is only a beginning. Taking passengers in comfort in 
forty-eight hours through a country which it formerly required months 
of hardship to traverse, it is but a pioneer, an iron wedge driven deep 
into the dark continent from which others are destined to branch out 
in various directions. Built with no special thought of profit, it is 
already paying its way. It is not yet a money-making concern, but it 
v/ill be when that fertile land becomes gridironed with iron rails and 
its valued products are brought in increasing quantities to the sea- 
port of Mombasa, thence to make their way to the civilized lands of 
the earth. 

Roosevelt, a born lover of nature, had abundant opportunity to 
observe some of nature's choicest wonders and charms from his cow- 
catcher perch. Before him beautiful birds and brilliant butterflies 



174 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

flew from tree to tree and flower to flower. Far below were deep 
and ragged gorges, over which the train passed on elevated bridges 
and down which ran flooded streams, flowing into glades of palms and 
trees embraced by climbing creepers. Everywhere was luxuriance, 
nature at her best. As the train ascended from the humid coast lands, 
with their heats and glories, the jungle was left behind and forest 
took its place, different but not less luxuriant. Here, at an elevation 
of four thousand feet, the olive replaced the palm and the country 
took on the aspect of temperate climes. 

When Makindu station was passed the forest ended and a new 
phase of African scenery opened before the traveler. A broad prairie 
land succeeded immense fields of green pasture spreading out before 
the traveler. This was intersected by streams with well-wooded banks, 
while bluffs and ridges broke the mionotony of the panorama. 

It is on this grassy plain that the great multitude of animals of 
which we have spoken come into view. It must have given joy to 
Roosevelt's heart — a born lover of animated nature — to see these 
graceful creatures, never before beheld by him except behind the 
bounds and bars of a menagerie or a zoological garden, here wander- 
ing about at liberty and disporting themselves in their native haunts. 

These came not singly before his eyes, but in droves and herds. 
Multitudes of antelopes in great variety, from the graceful gazelle 
to the great wildebeeste and hartebeeste ; troops of zebras, at times as 
many as five hundred in a drove; ostriches walking sedately in twos 
and threes, and small animals of many kinds. With the aid of a field 
glass this spectacle could be traced for long distances, but many of the 
animals came within close view, and the traveler could readily see 
and admire the striped sides of the beautiful zebras, which would stand 
and watch the train with placid assurance, or perhaps scamper a few 
hundred yards away and then turn to gaze again. In it all was an 
innocent trustfulness which doubtless warmed the observer's heart. 

If one wished to indulge in a hunt, the opportunity could easily be 
embraced. It is well to say here that a variety of what Ave may call 
trolley cars are in common use in that part of Africa. In Mombasa 
is a system of narrow-gauge railways which follow the main streets, 
with branches running to every house. No white man walks in that 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 175 

tropic town if he can in any way avoid doing so. Each official keeps 
his private car, not moved by electricity, but pushed by coolies, and 
bearing him from office to house and back again. 

It is such a conveyance of which the hunter avails himself. Leav- 
ing the train, he has only to get a trolley car and have himself pushed 
up and down the line. The animals pay no more attention to this than 
to the trains, becoming suspicious only when train or trolley stops. 
The shrewd hunter, therefore, slips off the car while it is in motion, 
and thus may find himself within a few hundred yards of his quarry, 
while the car goes on. His fortune then will depend upon his degree 
of skill with the rifle. 

This is one way of obtaining game. It is not the way in which 
a trained hunter like Colonel Roosevelt would be inclined to indulge 
largely. It looks too much like taking an unfair advantage of the 
animals. There is a second method which proved more to his taste. 
This is to leave the railway and prowl about among the trees and un- 
dergrowth of a neighboring river bed. Here in a few minutes one 
may bury oneself in the wildest and savagest kind of forest. The air 
becomes still and hot over the open spaces of dry sand and the pools 
of water. High grass, huge boulders, tangled vegetation, multitudes 
of thorn-bushes obstruct the march, and the ground itself is scarped 
and guttered by the rains into the strangest formations. Around the 
hunter, breast-high, shoulder-high, overhead, rises the African jungle. 
There is a brooding silence, broken now by the voice of a bird, now 
by the scolding bark of a baboon, or by the crunching of one's own 
feet on the crumbling soil. We enter the haunt of the wild beasts; 
their tracks, the remnants of their repasts, are easily and frequently 
discovered. Here a lion has passed since the morning. There a 
rhinoceros has certainly been within the hour — perhaps within ten 
minutes. We creep and scramble through the game paths, anxiously, 
rifles at full cock, not knowing what each turn or step may reveal. 
The wind, when it blows at all, blows fitfully, now from this quarter, 
now from that; so that one can never be certain that it will not betray 
the intruder in these grim domains to the beast he seeks, or to some 
other, less welcome, before he sees him. At length, after two hours' 
scramble and scrape, probably without seeing a beast — lion or rhinoc' 



1^6 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

eros — we emerge breathless, as from another world, half astonished 
to find ourselves withm a quarter of a mile of the railway line, with 
its trolley, luncheon, soda water and other conveniences of civilization. 

Let us now follow our hunter farther on his route, to where the 
train descends into the famous Rift Valley, one of the most remark- 
able phenomena of nature which Africa presents. This celebrated 
i^alley is a strange depression in the elevated region of eastern Africa, 
beginning in the southern portion of German East Africa at an alti- 
tude of about 2,500 feet, and rising in height as it passes northward 
till it reaches its highest elevation of 6,300 feet at Lake Naivasha. 
Then its level slowly decreases until at Lake Rudolf it is only 1,200 
^eet above sea level. From this point it dwindles in elevation, with 
occasional ridges, imtil sea level is reached at the Gulf of Aden. It 
varies from twenty to forty miles in width and is bounded by precip- 
itous sides rising to a much greater elevation. It appears as though 
some convulsion of the earth had caused a section of the great eastern 
plateau to slip down about 3,000 feet below the ground level of the 
land, the great cut being traced by geologists from the lower end of 
Lake Tanganyika to the land of Palestine. 

On looking at a relief map of northeast Africa it almost suggests 
the idea that nature had been considering whether she would not cut 
ofif another slice of Africa in addition to Madagascar. Madagascar 
may have been originally separated from Africa in that way. In this 
curious depression of the "Rift Valley" is a series of lakes, salt in 
some instances and fresh in others. Particularly noteworthy is a salt 
lake named Lake Llannington, after a missionary bishop murdered by 
the natives. (This commemoration v/as rather inappropriate because 
he was killed at a distance of nearly four hundred miles from this 
place.) Lake Hannington is visited at the present day by tourists who 
come to see the great number of flamingoes which make their home 
here. 

On Lake Hannington it is no exaggeration to say that there must 
be close upon a million flamingoes. These birds are mainly collected 
around the northern end of the lake and on the submerged banks which 
break up the deep blue-green of its still surface. The shores where 
they cluster, and these banks in the middle of the lake where they are 




h-" ^ 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 177 

above the water's edge, are dazzling white with the birds' guano. 
These flamingoes breed on a flat plain of mud about a mile broad at 
the north end of Lake Hannington, where their nests, in the form of 
little mounds of mud with feathers plastered on the hollowed top, 
appear like innumerable mole-hills. 

The birds, having hitherto been absolutely unmolested by man, 
are quite tame. They belong to a rosy species {Phoeniconais minor) 
which is slightly smaller than the Mediterranean flamingo, but ex- 
quisitely beautiful in plumage. The adult bird has a body and neck 
of rosy pink, the color of sunset clouds. The beak is scarlet and pur- 
ple; the legs are deep rose-pink inclining to scarlet. Underneath the 
black-pinioned wings the larger feathers are scarlet-crimson, while 
beautiful crimson crescents tip the tertiaries and wing-coverts on the 
upper surface of the wings. Apparently the mature plumage is not 
reached until the birds are about three years old. The younger fla- 
mingoes very soon attain the same size as the rosy adults, but their 
plumage gradually varies from a gray-white, through the color of a 
pale tea-rose, before its full sunset glow is attained. 

The belt of flamingoes on the north side of the lake must be nearly 
a mile in breadth, reaching from the waters edge into the lake. As 
looked upon from above the great colony of birds is gray-white in 
color on the shoreward side, then in the middle of the mass it becomes 
white, while its lakeward ring is of the most exquisite rose-pink. This 
is due to the fact that the young birds frequent the outer edge of the 
semicircle, while the oldest ones stretch farthest out into the lake. 

When these birds rise the noise they make can be heard nearly 
a mile away, their "kronk, kronk, kronk," mingled with splashings and 
swishings, making such a tumult of sound as to fill the air with uproar. 
Their mode of rising is an ungainly one, their flight being preceded 
by an absurd gallop through the mud before they can lift themselves 
on their wings. It is not easy to make them take to flight, they being 
so tame that one can approach quite near to them without causing any 
signs of disturbance. 

Looking on the Rift Valley from above, as Colonel Roosevelt and 
his party did, one sees a magnificent view, full of the elements of 
grandeur. Standing on the northeastern edge of the lofty escarp- 
12 



178 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

ment, they were able to look down fully five thousand feet, to a shining 
river that followed the valley's level, threading in its flow a lake and 
many glittering pools. At this point begin those splendid forests of 
coniferous trees which form the characteristic feature of this region. 
Away westward may be seen the great blue mass of Mount Elgon 
and in the nearer view a land of noble aspect. Before the eye stretch 
rich rolling downs of luxuriant grass, bits of leafy woodland, forests 
of acacia, and lower down, along the watercourses of the valley, vege- 
tation of tropical type. The downs, which slope away northward for 
fifty or sixty miles, are clad with a soft, silky grass, with hues varying 
from a pale pink to mauve, gray or russet as the wind bends the flower- 
ing stems. 

In passing over this plateau region the American visitors were 
warned not to follow any seeming native path, as these were usually 
cunning devices to tempt wandering antelopes or other unsuspecting 
animals to concealed game-traps. Such a trap would probably be c.n 
oblong pitfall concealed by sticks and cut grass, llirough v;hich the 
unwary creatures might fall into a pit from which they could not 
escape, perhaps to be impaled on a sharp-pointed stake planted in the 
bottom of the pit. 

Animals of various species roam here in countless numbers, and 
the few trapped in game pits by the nomad natives are too few in com- 
parison to be considered. What will be the effect, however, if the 
British sportsman is let loose among them, with his desire "to kill 
something," we cannot consider without alarm; especially when we 
consider the fate of the buffaloes of our western plains. These hunts- 
men do not usually go abroad, as did Roosevelt and his companions, 
to bring down only a pair of each species, for scientific purposes, but 
rather to be able to boast how many creatures they had killed, with 
no object but that of pure slaughter in a morning's outing. 

To a nature-lover like Theodore Roosevelt, with his joy in the 
existence of animal life, the scene before him must have been one of 
inspiring delight. Gazing from his point of vantage he could see 
large herds of stately giraffes, standing or stalking about as one may 
see cattle peacefully standing in an American grazing field. These 
giraffes — the camelopards of our old animal story-books — are the 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 179 

finest examples known to us of the northern variety of this strange 
creature, a species which extends from east to west far over the north- 
ern part of Central Africa, with the exception of Somaliland, where 
a species of peculiar color is found. These animals are striking 
objects when they are beheld, as is often the case, standing on the 
tops of some of the numerous ant-hills of this country and keenly 
surveying the region surrounding. Poised thus like a sentinel on a 
mound, a giraffe stands rigidly erect, scarcely moving his head; so 
that, with his short body and long, tapering neck, he looks not unlike 
an unbranched tree trunk which has been struck by lightning or 
scorched by a forest fire. 

The giraffes are by no means alone in this well peopled country, 
which looks like a vast zoological garden with its tenants uncaged. 
Here at times may be seen herds of huge elephants, tramping mas- 
sively along, though as a rule the elephant prefers the forest to the 
open plain. The same may be said of the rhinoceros, which is apt 
to haunt the thick bush, though it is not uncommon to meet it on 
the plain. 

These are the big game, visible afar off. Nearer at hand many 
smaller animals are to be seen. These include herds of zebras, striped 
black and white, mingled with hartebeests with their coats of red- 
gold hue. The elk-like eland, a forest-loving creature, may occasion- 
ally be seen; and many other antelopes, including the wildebeest, 
otherwise known as the gnoo or horned horse; the reedbuck, quietly 
browsing or bounding at great speed ; the dainty sable antelope or 
damiliscus; the noble waterbuck, with wide-branching antlers deco- 
rating the males, and herds of graceful gazelles. 

Other creatures of less attractive mould are the dirt-colored, 
uncouth wart-hog, the slinking and snapping jackal, the repulsive 
hyena, and perhaps at intervals the maned lion and spotted leopard 
lurking in search of prey on the skirts of the browsing herds. In 
fact, the spectacle visible from this elevated point of view is one of 
most remarkable character, Africa standing alone in its great variety 
of strange and attractive animal forms. 

Nairobi, the capital of British East Africa, and a place frequently 
visited by Roosevelt during his African trip, lies at the foot of wooded 



i8o THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

hills on the railway, three hundred and twenty-seven miles from 
Mombasa. The town is built on low swampy ground, in a rather 
unhealthy situation, without a very good water supply. It was 
planted in this situation because the location was convenient for 
shops and supply depots used in the construction of the railway. 
The government buildings, however, with the hospitals and barracks, 
are placed a mile farther west on higher ground. About 15,000 
people, less than 1,000 of them being whites, occupy the tin houses 
which constitute the town, but the stores are equipped to supply 
the needs of a very large neighborhood, and Nairobi is therefore 
headquarters for this portion of the world. A brigade of the King's 
African Rifles and the Central Offices of the Uganda Railway are 
also stationed here, and the incidentals of civilization which the 
English always carry with them make a strange contrast with the 
surrounding wilderness of the country. To see, for instance, a 
large company of men sitting down to dinner in evening dress would 
seem to us scarcely in harmony in a spot where ten years before lions 
and other wild beasts were undisturbed. 

To add to the incongruity of this landscape under the Equator, 
one hundred miles away rises the snow-clad peak of Mt. Kenya, 
visible on a clear day from the higher ground above Nairobi. The 
flanks of the mountain can be reached by a fairly good road in an 
automobile. It passes through a fertile country, undulating and 
marked by numerous water courses, shaded with flourishing trees. 
A number of colonists have taken up large estates of many thousand 
acres, raising ostriches, sheep and cattle, or coffee and other staple 
crops. It was at Nairobi that the Roosevelt expedition picked up 
a great part of its hunting outfit, and on the estates of the colonists 
much of its early hunting was done. 

Lion hunting is good here. The traveler's host insists on pro- 
viding him with a lion, and to do this they first beat him up out of the 
reed beds and try to bring him to bay. Ordinarily this dreaded 
beast does not seek a quarrel unless it is forced on him. So the 
hunters in this neighborhood ride on ponies, and when they have 
aroused the monarch they pursue him as fast as they can, never losing 
sight of him for a moment, trying to head him ofE and enrage him by 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 



isi 



their harassing. Naturally, he resents this treatment and begins 
to growl and roar, perhaps making short charges at his pursuers to 
scare them off. At last, when he sees that the huntsmen intend to 
attack him, he turns at bay, and then there is no fear that he will 
try to escape. He will fight to the death, and when a lion frantic 
with the agony of a bullet w^ound is at bay death is the only thing that 
will stop his frenzied charges; broken jaws or legs, and body full of 
bullets rarely daunt the courage of this ferocious beast. Either 
he must be killed before he reaches his pursuer, or the man will die 
for it, crushed by the pow^erful paw, poisoned with claws and feet, 
or crunched in the lion's mouth. 

Yet lion hunters tell us that, unless one encamps in the vicinity 
of a genuine man-eater, there is little to fear. Much as we have been 
accustomed to speak in terms of respect of this "noble" lord of the 
wilds, African hunters frequently describe him in accents of con- 
tempt. He is never " spoiling for a fight" — at least with man— and 
unless goaded to anger and cut off from retreat, takes care to avoid 
battle with this new and perilous foe. There are those who tell us 
that if an unarmed man comes by chance into close vicinity with a 
half dozen or so of lions, all he need do is to speak to them sternly 
and they will slink away like scolded ctrrs, the more rapidly if he 
throws a few stones at them to huny up their pace. This course of 
treatment is highly recommended by some Afrikanders under such 
circumstances, but it is doubtful if many of us would care to try the 
experiment. The results of early education cannot but instil in us 
a certain wholesome respect for this powerful and dangerous brute. 
How Colonel Roosevelt would have acted if he had met a half dozen 
of these tawny prowlers when unarmed, we are not prepared to 
say, as he never met even one of them without his trusty rifle in 
hand. 

Following the East African Railway to the west of Nairobi the 
traveler soon finds himself in the midst of more magnificent scenery 
than that seen on the journey from Mombasa. The train ascends the 
high plateau for sixty miles by a series of wooded slopes to a height 
of over 6,000 feet. Then the ground falls away apparently more than 
2,000 feet, almost like a precipice. Farther than the eye can see 



j82 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 

the Kikuyu Escarpment stretches away as straight as a ruler to 
right and left. The train zig-zags downward along its western face, 
opening vistas of a wonderful panorama. Far below, the level sur- 
face of the plain is broken by volcanic hills and extinct craters, and 
in the far distance the opposite wall appears dimly like the other side 
of a gigantic trough. 

Lake Naivasha hes on the route, about ten miles square, with 
the rim of a submerged crater making a crescent-shaped island in 
its centre. The water is brackish and thronged with wild fowl and 
hippopotami. Long before reaching Naivasha we leave behind us 
the highland region and descend the steep Kikuyu Escarpment, the 
lofty and precipitous eastern wall of the Rift Valley. Crossing 
this wonderfully fertile valley, we reach the opposite wall, the 
Mau Escarpment, the lofty western ridge, up which the train creeps 
with as much difficulty as it had met with in descending the opposite 
wall. Throughout this whole region the railway is engaged in a 
constant battle with the luxuriant forces of vegetable nature in 
the tropics. Over the line hang great trees. The cuttings are 
invaded by multittidinous creepers, which trail downwards, cover- 
ing the embankments, and seeking incessantly to bury the roadway. 
Every neglected clearing is quickly taken captive by these swift- 
growing plants. Only for the ceaseless care with which the line 
is cleared and weeded it would soon be overrun. If abandoned 
for a year it would be difficult to discover where it ran. 

The valley level left, we now crawl slowly up the Mau Escarp- 
ment, getting steadily higher and finding changes in the aspect 
of the country as we advance. The forest through which we have 
long rolled onward, begins to give way to rolling hills covered with 
grass. And the odd feature of this is that there is no border of 
scattered trees or straggling brush. The woodland ends abruptly and 
the fields of grass run up to its very edge. The top of the Mau 
Escarpment reached, at an elevation of about 8,300 feet, the 
highest level of the railway is attained. Thence it descends grad- 
ually to its terminus on the shores of the great lake, the waters of 
which may be seen from the top of a hill which looms upward about 
five hundred feet above the line of the road. 



THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 183 

As we go onward down a steady slope, and mile by mile the 
train descends, we throw off the overcoat worn in the cool air of 
the higher level, and by the time the train reaches the lake shore 
we find ourselves in a warm and damp tropical climate, though 
we are still at an elevation of 4,000 feet above sea level. The goal 
so long before us, Kisuma, or Port Florence, is reached, the railway 
ends, and before us, like an inland sea, stretches the liquid level of 
the greatest African lake, the noble Victoria Nyanza. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

In the Wilds of British East Africa 

THE interesting country through which runs the East African 
Railway, and in which Colonel Roosevelt hoped to have the 
time of his life in his hunt after the earth's greatest, savagest 
and most abundant game, is one whose story has been of late years 
revealed to the world by a series of famous discoverers, the first of 
white men to penetrate the secret depths of the Dark Continent and 
lay bare to mankind its long-hidden mysteries. The names of these 
great explorers, and especially those of Livingstone and Stanley, are 
in the same rank as those of Columbus and Magellan. They are 
among the leading discoverers of the world and their names will always 
stand high among those who have sought to penetrate the marvels 
and solve the problems of the earth. 

After these pioneers there came into the African wilds a series 
of daring men of different mould. These were the great hunters, the 
men who bearded the lordly lion in his den, stood boldly before the 
horned and ferocious rhinoceros, invaded the path of the furiously 
charging elephant, fearlessly faced the most savage of animals and 
lived to tell of their boldness and their triumphs. There have been 
many of these men, the Nimrods of the African wilderness. We have 
not told their names nor described their deeds, reserving the story of 
hunting exploits in Africa for one of the latest and boldest of them 
all, Theodore Roosevelt, the first great American to meet these savage 
creatures on their native soil. The records of hunting adventures are 
much alike, and the exploits of our hero were of the same type as those 
of his predecessors. 

It is well here to say that making preparations for an African 
hunting trip was formerly a very complicated afifair, but the tide of 
travel has set so strongly in that direction during the last ten years 
that all possible wants are systematically taken care of by European 
outfitters. Practically the only necessary thing is to write to one of the 

(184) 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 185 

great London outfitting houses, stating the probable duration of 
the stay in Africa and the number in the party. With this informa- 
tion these houses are equipped to deHver to any African port an entire 
outfit packed for porters in sixty-pound packages, with canvas 
covers and handles, consisting of all food with the exception of the 
sugar, flour and like heavy supplies, which are easily bought at the 
starting point in Africa. The outfit also contains tents, cutlery, 
axes, folding bath tubs and in short everything needftd except guns 
and ammunition. These also can be readily procured in London or 
New York of the proper type and size. Mr. Roosevelt found every- 
thing ready and v/aiting for him on his arrival. He had only to dis- 
embark with his guns and personal equipment and entrain for the 
interior, picking up the outfit at Nairobi. 

The selection of guns is a serious matter on a trip of this kind. 
Very often a man's life depends entirely on the rxcuracy and per- 




WINCHESTER SPORTING RIFLE 
A high power, long range rifle 

fection of this part of the equipment. A defective lock or weak 
ejector has cost more than one life in the jungle. Most hunters of 
late years have taken the following assortment: First and most 
important, of course, is the heavy double barrel .450 (45-ioo-inch) 
express rifle, using cordite and usually either soft-nose or explosive 
bullets. This rifle is used for the largest game, such as elephant, 
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, etc., when the range is not too great. 
Next come the lighter guns with smaller bore and greater range. 
Many hunters prefer the Mannlicher sporting rifle of eight or nine 
millimeters bore (about as large as a drawing crayon, 33-100 and 
35-100 of an inch). Others prefer the Winchester. Mr. Roosevelt 
used the latter in most of his work. These smaller-bore rifles are 
very useful for the fleet antelope family, zebra, giraffe and the wary 



x86 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



and easily frightened gazelles or smaller antelopes. Their range is 
greater than that of the express and a kill can be made at i,ooo 
yards or more. In addition to these weapons, a 12-bore repeating 
shot gun and a service revolver usually suffice to complete the list. 

Alterations in guns are sometimes necessary. For instance, 
Mr. Roosevelt is said to be somewhat color blind. In trying out 
his rifles it was found that with the regulation gun metal sight he 
was rather a poor marksman, but when a pink bead had been sub- 
stituted for this his targets were remarkably good. 

In the past chapter we have given a description of the pic- 
turesque country which he traversed on the way to the hunting 




FOX DOUBLE BARREL SHOT GUN 
A gun of this model was made for Mr. Roosevelt 



grounds he sought, the remarkable scenes of animated nature which 
met his eyes, a vivid photograph of the remarkable region trans- 
versed by the railway which runs from the seaport of Mombasa to 
Port Florence, on the eastern shore of the Victoria Nyanza. That 
chapter was intended simply to lay out the country before the eyes 
of the reader before following our hunter into its wilds and telling 
the story of some of his chief exploits. 

The railway station at Kapiti Plain lies nearest to the ranch of 
Sir Alfred Pease, who had invited the distinguished American to 
spend a few weeks in hunting on his estate. The train from Mom- 
basa on which our traveler had taken passage reached this station 
on April 23, and the Roosevelt party left the cars and pitched their 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 1S7 

tents near the station, proposing to spend here their first night 
under canvas in Africa. The advent of the hunters was hailed with 
cheers and wild howls and shouts of welcome as the train rolled into 
the wayside station, a group of some two hundred men, nearly all 
half naked and of deep sable hue, being lined up on the platform to 
hail the newcomers. 

It was their chief who was coming and they greeted him with 
loud acclaim, for these were the native porters chosen for the party 
and gathered at this point by Mr. R. J. Cuninghame, the Scotch 
scout and hunter, who was to lead the hunting excursion through 
the African wilderness. As Colonel Roosevelt stepped down from 
h!s post of observation on the engine front, Sir Alfred Pease, his 
waiting host, stepped forward to greet him. A sturdy figure he 
appeared, in khaki hunting suit and with a white helmet on his 
head. There was a look of warm gratification on his face as he 
heard the shouting blacks and vigorously grasped the extended 
hand of his English host, who was evidently equally gratified in 
greeting his illustrious guest. That night the whole party rested, 
as we have said, under their tents near the station, the negroes 
seeming glad to dwell under the shadow of the American flag, new to 
their eyes, as it waved in starry folds over the leader's tent. 

Sir Alfred gave his guest a graphic description of the hunting 
opportunities of the region, to which he listened with warm appre- 
ciation and delight. That he was in a country probably fuller of game 
animals than any equal region elsewhere upon the earth he had 
become convinced from the seemingly numberless animals he had 
seen from his perch of observation on the train, and that they were 
not all of the harmless kinds he had evidence from the low but 
threatening growls of prowling lions that night in the vicinity of the 
camp, doubtless attracted thither by the scent of hoped-for prey. 
He went to sleep to dream of the delights and perils of a hunter's 
paradise. 

All were up and about at an early hour the next day, hoping 
for a shot at the surrounding game betore setting out for Sir Alfred's 
ranch. The first opportunity came to the ardent young Kermit. 
While his father was unpacking his kit, the eager youth went afield 



i88 IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

with an old settler who had taken a fancy to him, and proved his 
marksmanship by bringing down a passing antelope with his first 
shot. His father's maiden effort was made on the 25th, when he 
bagged two wildebeests, the African name for the species of antelope 
known in our old story books as the gnoo, or horned horse. He also 
brought down a Thompson's gazelle — a Tommy, in the patois of the 
residents. He Vv^as anxious to get a Grant's gazelle, the massive 
horns of which are valued prizes, and the hunt w^as continued for 
several hours, but without meeting one of these wished-for natives 
of the plains. It is well to state here that there are some twenty 
species in all of the small and graceful variety of antelopes known 
as gazelles, the largest of them being the springbok. The speed 
of the beautiful animals of this species is common to all the gazelles, 
which are able to outrun the swiftest dogs. When taken alive the 
gazelle, though wild and timid by nature, is easily tamed and if 
captured when young becomes quickly familiar with its captors. 
Its beauty and gentl;ness make it a favorite in many parts of 
southern Asia, where it is found as well as in Africa. 

The country in which Colonel Roosevelt and his party now were 
proved to be cool and pleasant despite its tropical location, its 
elevation above the sea reducing the temperature except under the 
intense rays of the midday sun. It held many white settlers, Britons 
and Boers, who had taken up and developed plantations in its 
fertile areas, and many of whom were ardent hunters. All these 
settlers vied in efforts to give their notable visitor a good time, and 
though he was the guest of Sir Alfred Pease, the houses of all were 
thrown open to him with the utmost freedom and warmest hospi- 
tality. 

It was a true hunter's paradise in which the expedition now 
found itself, animals of a great variety of species roaming over the 
Kapiti and Athi plains in extraordinary abundance. The most 
common species appeared to be the zebra and the hartebeest, but 
there were also to be seen the wildebeest, several species of gazelle 
and various other antelopes. Hunters in that coimtry are rarely 
out of sight of game. There were miles of it to be ridden through. 
But this was chiefly of the smaller grazing variety. The lion and 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 189 

the monster herbivora were naturally less numerous and needed to 
be sought in their lurking places in thicket or forest. They rarely 
appeared on the open plain. 

It is a somewhat general impression that Colonel Roosevelt is 
a marksman of unusually keen and sure aim, a trained expert with 
the rifle, and such would seem to be the case from many examples 
of skill told of him in Africa. But he modestly disclaims any such 
powers, and tells us that, while he sometimxcs shot fairly well, at 
others his aim was very poor. He goes on to say that, as a rule, 
every head of game won by him was at the cost of a goodly number 
of bullets. This was especially the case when shooting at long 
range, or at the alert little grass antelopes known as the steenebok 
and duiker, the habit of which is to hide in the long grass mitil 
danger is very near, then to dart from their coverts at such speed 
and with such quick twists and leaps that it needs a marksman of 
unusual ability to hit them in flight. 

Such game as this did not long suffice our ardent hunter, whose 
soul burned for encounters with the more dangerous creature for 
which Africa is famed, the prowling and ferocious lion, the king of 
the carnivora, or for such huge creatures as the rhinoceros, elephant 
and hippopotamus. These, with the buffalo, the leopard, and the 
crocodile, are animals which cannot be hunted without peril to 
the hunter, and large numbers of whites, with multitudes of the 
natives, have been killed by them since the opening of Africa. 

Which of these savage beasts is the most to be dreaded is a 
question as yet unsettled. Some hunters give precedence to the 
rhinoceros, some to the elephant, others to the buffalo, and still 
others to the lion. In British East Africa the lion seems to have 
been the most destructive to human life within recent years, and 
F. C. Selous, one of the most famous of hunters, whose unerring 
rifle has brought down more than three hundred lions and great 
numbers of the larger animals, and who was for a time one of Roose- 
velt's companions in the African wilds, is inclined to give the lion 
the palm as a man-killer. 

While the habit of the lion is to keep close in its lair by day, 
making the night its hunting time, and is not apt to disturb man 



igo IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

if left alone, it is often very ferocious and dangerous when cornered, 
and Africa is full of tales of perilous adventures with this great 
carnivorous beast. Its hereditary habit of crouching and creeping 
on its prey has made it very cautious when on open ground, though 
bold enough when there is cover; but as it hunts for food rather 
than for glory, it prefers to kill the antelope rather than attack 
prey better able to defend itself. Thus it fears man, of whose 
powers as an antagonist it has become well aware, and this m.ay be 
the cause of its seeming cowardice, as described in the last chapter. 
It is certainly bold enough when cornered or vchen a wound has 
aroused its ferocious spirit. If, hov/ever, it has once had a taste 
of human blood its eagerness to make man its prey is such as to 
overcome all sense of danger and it becomes a persistent and deadly 
hunter of the human invaders of its haunts. 

The natural desire of the American hunter to cope with this 
lord of the African wilds was quickly gratified. Sir Alfred Pease 
inviting his guest to spend a day in lion hunting shortly after the 
latter had reached the ranch of his host on the Athi River. With 
Sir Alfred as guide, Roosevelt and some members of his party, 
accompanied by the usual native aids and hunting dogs, set out on 
their pioneer lion hunt. The Americans were naturally eager and 
excited. A new and perilous experience was before them. Roose- 
velt had brought down many specimens of every game animal of 
which America can boast, not omitting the ferocious grizzly bear, 
yet he had never coped with a creature of the fame of the lion, and 
his heart throbbed with anticipation when the behavior of the dogs 
showed that the scent of this creature was in the air. 

Their way had led down a dry water cotu'se, the natives throw- 
ing stones into each patch of bushes they met in the hope of stirring 
up some lurking brute. The honors of the day were reserved by 
Sir Alfred for his guest, and when the growling alertness of the dogs 
showed that the prey they sought was close at hand. Sir Alfred 
fixed his eyes on a nearby covert in which he had caught significant 
signs of game. " Shoot ! " he called out to his guest. 

Roosevelt gazed intently into the clump of bushes close beside 
him and caught through the green leaves indistinct glimpses of a 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 191 

tawny hide. Without an instant's hesitation he raised his piece 
and fired, Kermit following with a second shot. The next instant 
there bounded out of the bushes two wounded animals of the size cf 
a large dog. They were lion cubs which had been hiding there 
apart from their dam and met with their fate in consequence. 

Disappointed at this unsatisfactory outcome of their firs^ 
effort to bag a lion, the hunters rode on to another donga, or shallo^v^ 
water course, first making sure of the death of the cubs. In every 
case possible Colonel Roosevelt took care that no wounded animal 
should escape to die in misery, and at times would follow such 
a victnTi for miles with the merciful purpose of satisfying himself 
tnat it died a painless death. 

On resuming their hunt down this donga better fortune awaited 
them. The stone-throwing of the natives into a high bushy clump 
was followed by growls and a thrashing as if some large creature 
had been disturbed in its siesta. Then from its lair in the bushes, 
at a point about a hundred feet from the hunters, the tawny bulk 
of a lion broke into view. 

It was Roosevelt's first glimpse of this lordly creature in its 
native wilds and he could have been excused for some trepidation 
on seeing the monarch of the wilderness tmcaged and so near at 
hand. He might even have been pardoned for missing the great 
brute. But no signs of loss of nerve appeared, the bullet sped true, 
and the lion gave a wild spring v/hen the leaden messenger of death 
struck it. Two more shots were needed to fell the beast, one a miss, 
the second bringing him down with broken back. But the great 
brute was yet far from death, and three more shots by as many of 
the hunters were needed to give him the coup de grace. 

AU this had taken place within a minute and the attention of 
the hunters was now given to a second lion which had broken from 
the same covert and was bounding with quick leaps across the 
plain. Instant pursuit was given, Roosevelt on foot with his black 
attendant. The lion, finding itself thus closely pursued, came to 
bay in^"a grassy hollow, where it stood in a threatening attitude as 
its pursuers came up. There were indications of a coming charge 
of the angered brute and, resting his gun on the black fellow's 



192 IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

shoulder, Roosevelt toppled it over with a quick shot. But the 
fight was not taken out of the animal. Springing fiercely to its feet, 
it was on the point of making a fierce charge on its nearby foes 
when a second ball broke its back. A third reached a vital point 
and the animal fell over dead. 

Success had attended Roosevelt's first hunt. He had himself 
brought down two good-sized lions and shared with Kermit the 
honor of killing two cubs. These, the first of their enterprise among 
carnivorous beasts, were quickly skinned by Mr. Heller and his 
aids, the black beaters loading the skins on poles and bearing them 
into camp on their shoulders, singing their hunting song as they 
bore the prizes homeward. 

In a second lion hunt, which took place a few days later, Kermit 
began the day's sport by downing a cheetah and two antelopes, 
but his father bagged the first lion, a half-gi'own male. Riding on^ 
they found they had entered a well-peopled lair. In a patch of 
grass a few hundred feet away a lion rose with an angry grunt, faced 
the hunters for a brief instant and then hotly charged. The moment 
was a critical one, but Roosevelt was equal to the occasion. His 
piece rang out and the furious beast fell in mid career with a fatal 
wound. Two more bullets w^ere sent to make sure of its death. 

This quick shot at close range very likely saved the lives of 
some of his escort, on whom the beast was charging at a pace that 
meant business. As it was they had a narrow escape and warmly 
praised the accuracy of the hunter's aim, which had hit the animal 
at a fatal spot between neck and shoulder. 

A little farther on a lioness was put up and she in turn charged 
the line of beaters. She was toppled over, like her late comrade, by 
Roosevelt's deadly weapon, but rose and gained the shelter of some 
bushes. She was still dangerous and a second shot was needed to 
close her career. Thus in a few days our daring hunter had bagged 
no fewer than five lions, and had much warrant for a feeling of exulta- 
tion when the bearers came home after nightfall bearing the skins 
of the slain animals and singing a chorus of savage triumph as they 
swayed along with their burden in the light of the full May moon. 

An adventure of a different character, and one .that caused 




Photo hi/ Paul Thompson, N, Y. 

EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND THE RULERS OF UGANDA, AFRICA 

An excellent photograph of the disnitaries of the province of LTRanda, taken at the 
Provincial Commission House at the Kampala, Uganda, on December 22, 1000. In the 
front row from left to right are Bishop Tucker, Colonel Roosevelt. King Dandi. hereditary 
ruler of LTganda. who reigns under a British protectorate, and Provincial Commissioner 
Hanlon.. In the background are seen other members of the King's court and the pro- 
vincial government. 




Photographed hy Paul Thompson, N. Y. 

EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IN AFRICA 

A common garden bench was firmly fastened on the pilot of the engine of the East African 
Railway which took the distinguished hunting party from Mombasa on the coast up through the 
Interior. By this arrangement the hunters overlooked none of the big game which throngs the 
country near the railroad and fully enjoyed the wonderful scenery of the regions traversed In their 
long Journey. Col. Roosevelt is seen at the left o£ the picture adjusting his helmet strap just 
before tlie train started. 




AFRICAN PORTERS ON TIIK MAKCli 

This Interesting picture sbows a part of Colonel Roosevelt's pack train or safari 
traveling through the African jungle. Some idea of the loads carried by the natives may 
lie gathered from this photograph, which was taken by a photographer accompanying the 
ex-President. 



7A^ THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 193 

some consternation in the party, took place a day or two later. 
Kermit Roosevelt, while out riding alone on May 7th, lost his way 
in the trackless wilderness and was obliged to spend the night in a 
region strange to him, leaving his father and friends in a state of 
intense anxiety. On the following day he succeeded in reaching 
a station on the railway and was directed how to find the camp of 
the expedition. 

Colonel Roosevelt's excellent fortune in lion hunting was fol- 
lowed by a desire to add to his collection of animal specimens some 
examples of the stately giraffe, an animal peculiar to Africa and one 
of the most remarkable of the inhabitants of the dark continent. 
With its long legs and extraordinary length of neck the giraffe lifts 
its lofty head to a higher elevation than any other inmate of the 
animal kingdom and can browse wdth ease off trees at a height which 
even the tip of the elephant 's trunk v/ould fail to reach. 

Our ardent hunting naturalist wanted a good bull and cow of this 
interesting species, and by careful stalking he succeeded in bring- 
ing down a big bull. But this giraffe, though badly hurt, was not 
disabled and struggled to its feet again, running from the hunters 
with all the speed of its long legs. Though hotly pursued, the best 
of African horses would never have been able to run him down had 
it not been for the serious wound he had received. This caused 
the tall beast to totter and lose speed and he finally succumbed to 
the bullets of his unrelenting foes. 

While Roosevelt was engaged in this hunt. Sir Alfred Pease and 
Kermit set off in chase of another member of the same herd, which 
they in turn had succeeded in wounding. While chasing it hotly on 
horseback, Sir Alfred's ride came suddenly to an end, the horse 
getting its foot in a hole which caused it to turn almost a somersault, 
wrenching its shoulder and flinging its rider half stunned over its 
head. 

Kermit, with boyish ardor, followed on the track of the speeding 
giraffe until his horse, weary with the day's work, completely gave 
out. This misadventure did not check the ardent young hunter. 
With a college record for sprinting, he sprang from the saddle and 
chased the wounded animal on foot for more than a mile. The 

13 



194 IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

poor creatiire had been badly hurt and its bleeding flight fast used 
up its strength, so that the pursuer had at length the satisfaction of 
seeing it halt, totter on its long legs, and fall crashing to the ground, 
stone dead. That day's hunt had added two giraffes to the hunters' 
record. 

On May 15th the Roosevelt party left the ranch of Sir Alfred 
for that of Mr. George McMullen, a wealthy American from St. Louis, 
who had been led by his love of hunting to take up a lodge in that 
wide wilderness. McMullen was a hunter of prowess and his wife 
shared his enthusiasm and had herself brought down a lion. The 
ranch, an extensive one, was kept for its owner's use alone, though 
he raised the embargo in Mr. Roosevelt's favor and gave him every 
facility in his power. 

On this ranch J. H. Judd, a professional hunter, took part in the 
Pvoosevelt raids, and helped him in a successful hunt, in which he 
added to his record specimens of the stately waterbuck and the 
beautiful impalla, one of the most graceful of antelopes. On this 
same day's hunt game of a different character fell to Roosevelt's 
lot, for he had the good fortune to kill a python, the great serpent 
of the African forests. Some of these monsters of the snake family 
grow to the length of twenty feet, with a girth in proportion. The 
one killed on this occasion was twelve feet long and weighed about 
forty pounds. 

As seems to have been somewhat usual, Kermit had his adven- 
ture on this occasion. He had put up a leopard, an animal which, 
despite the fact that it is much smaller than the lion, surpasses it 
in courage and ferocity, as the youthful hunter was to learn. The 
leopard had taken to the bush and as Kermit approached it made a 
fierce charge upon him, being less than twenty feet distant when he 
pulled trigger and stopped its charge with a bullet. 

Taking to the bush again, the beast crouched growling and as a 
beater came incautiously near made a sudden spring from its lair. 
McMullen, who was close by, gave it a second wound, but the badly 
hurt animal seized the beater and but for its weakened state and 
the strength of the powerful black would have torn him badly with 
its teeth and claws. 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 1^5 

Thrown off by the negro and hit again by McMuUen, it took 
refuge in the long grass. But the fight was not yet taken out of the 
furious beast, and as Kermit drew near it charged him again. This 
time his bullet went true and the ferocious creature fell dead. 

During his hunting on this ranch Roosevelt added to his record 
some of the great beasts of the African wilds. On one of his outings 
he went out with the purpose of seeking crocodiles and hippopotami 
in the Athi River. He found traces of them, but was disturbed in 
his hunt in an unexpected way. His first glimpse of a crocodile 
consisted in the show of a snout, only the eyes and nostrils appearing 
above the water. A hippopotamus next came into view, but while 
endeavoring to get within rifle range of it there came a wild thrashing 
of the nearby bushes and the huge hulk of a rhinoceros suddenly 
broke into the open. 

This was not to his taste. He was out for hippos, not for 
rhinos, and had no wish to kill this unlooked-for visitor. But a rhino 
is an ugly customer to deal with and will often charge the hunter 
without waiting for cause or provocation. This was the case with 
the present vicious brute. It rushed in mad fury upon the hunters 
and was not checked until two bullets had torn through its thick 
hide. Several other shots followed and the wounded brute sought 
refuge in a neighboring thorn thicket. 

Not wishing to leave the wounded animal to die in misery they 
followed it, tracing it by its blood, though they found the passage 
of the thicket slow work. Their hunt was ended by another furious 
charge from the wounded brute, but two more heavy bullets finished 
the work and the rhino fell dead. It was one of the most vicious 
met with in the Roosevelt hunts. 

The rhinoceros disposed of, the sportsmen returned to their 
hippo hunt, and succeeded in hitting one of which only the head was 
visible above the water. It vanished when struck, but on their 
return the next day the huge body was found dead. 

The Roosevelt party remained guests of Mr. McMullen for ten 
days, leaving the ranch for Nairobi on May 26th. On their last 
day's hunt Roosevelt added a buffalo to his score, while Kermit 
brotight down a bull wildebeest. On their arrival at Nairobi they 



196 IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

became the guests of Lieutenant-Governor Jackson, who made every 
effort to give them a pleasant recollection of the capital of British 
East Africa. They had now spent about a month in the hunting 
fields and had as relics of their skill the skins and skulls of eighty 
animals belonging to twenty- two species. These had been carefully 
prepared by Mr. Edmund Heller, the skilled naturalist of the expedi- 
tion, preparatory to shipping them to the Smithsonian Institution 
for scientific study and display. 

During these days of hunting and the subsequent brief stays at 
Nairobi, Colonel Roosevelt displayed the characteristics of energy 
and activity for which he had become famous in his native land. He 
astonished all those with whom he came in contact alike by his power 
of endurance and his versatility. There was no subject with which 
he did not seem familiar, almost as much so as if he had made it a 
special field of investigation. He was ready to discuss the art of 
farming with a farmer, finance with a banker, politics with a states- 
man, in every case showing a familiarity with the subject and a fresh- 
ness of suggestion that surprised those with whom he conversed. 

His endurance was equally notable. He was ready at any 
time for a thirt}^ miles outing on horseback or on foot as occasion 
served, and might have gone farther if the laden porters could 
have borne the strain. After a hard day's work in the field and 
a hearty meal at the close, his labor was by no means at an end. 
At night he might be seen at his table, pen in hand, a lamp dangling 
from a pole over his head, writing away until after midnight. Yet 
when the new day came he was often astir before dawn, ready 
again for the field. It is no wonder that his companions pronounced 
him a " glutton for work. ' ' 

The natives were equally astonished and admiring. They 
styled him Bwana Tumbo, an African title signifying in its literal 
sense "portly master," but in its usual employment "great chief." 
They were warranted in this, for rarely had they beheld his equal. 
As for himself, brown as a berry with the bronzing of the African 
sun, he appeared to enjoy with zest every moment of his outing, 
keeping in the prime of health and vowing in his vigorous fashion 
that he was having a "bully good time. " 



IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 197 

While at Nairobi on the occasion of a later visit a public banquet 
was got up in his honor at which the American residents (few in 
number) presented him with a handsome and fitting memorial of 
his trip. This consisted of the foot of a rhinoceros beautifully 
mounted in silver and scooped out so that it would serve as a box. 
It was fitted with a cover of solid silver made to resemble the head 
of a rhinoceros with a horn of polished ivory. 

The British officials and residents, not to be outdone in this 
gift-giving, presented him as their memorial an elephant's foot 
mounted in gold, a magnificent example of the art of the jeweler. 

That the guest of the banquet was highly gratified and deeply 
touched by these testimonials of friendliness and esteem need 
scarcely be said, and that he will long cherish these gifts cannot be 
doubted. Addresses were made during these presentations to 
which he warmly replied, and took occasion, in his usual hearty 
manner, to predict a great future for the land which was so rapidly 
falling under the care and intelligence of these men. He asked 
from them good treatment for the blacks, the natives of the land, 
to the intent that civilization should be to them a blessing instead 
of an injury. As for the large population of East Indians, who 
had made their way into the country during the previous Arab rule, 
he thought they might become very useful members of the com- 
munity, developing regions specially adapted to their methods of 
agriculture and introducing plants fitted to the soil and climate of 
certain districts. 

On the whole, however, it was Mr. Roosevelt's opinion that this 
pleasant plateau region was destined to become essentially a white 
man's country, an outlying province of the British Isle which might 
be made to resemble the home country in its conditions and pro- 
ducts. 

In that fertile soil and cool air could be grown wheat, potatoes, 
apples, and other productions of the temperate zone. The grassy 
plains, browsed over by such multitudes of antelopes and zebras, 
could be made to feed great herds of choice cattle. The wild olives 
which grew on the hills suggested another form of agricultural 
industry. The trees of the region, while chiefly mimosas or other 



ipS IN THE WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 

thorn-bearing plants, could be varied by trees yielding valuable 
lumber of many kinds. Already a settled country, it was easy to 
foresee for British East Africa a highly prosperous future. 

As for the natives, though there were among them warlike 
tribes, they had none of the untamable fierceness of the American 
Indians. They were readily amenable to good treatment and 
could be employed as farmers, herders, or in other occupations 
suited to their tribal traditions and customs. The Masai, the most 
warlike of the tribes, were already being usefully employed as cattle 
herdsmen and suitable work might be found for every tribe. 

Most of the tribes in this region of Africa have herds of goats, 
sheep, and especially of small humped cattle, in which they take 
great pride. These are kept at night in enclosures of thorn-bush 
to save them from the attacks of lions or leopards. It is curious 
that the only use made by the natives of these cattle is for milk. 
They do not think of using them as draft animals or of feeding on 
their flesh. Even when on the verge of starvation their cattle are 
safe from the butcher's hand. They might die by hundreds without 
killing for food one of these pet cattle, for such they seem to regard 
them. 

A people like this is certainly a very gentle one and susceptible 
to the influence of kind treatment. In the Wakanda settlements 
of the country in which Roosevelt then was the elders gave much 
of their time to the care of their herds of small cattle, the children 
looking after the calves. Ostriches were also domesticated, these 
being looked after by the boys. Thus the natives of this region of 
Africa are weU fltted to become active and skilful keepers of the 
animals of the farm and field and can be utilized in various fields 
rf labor. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Hunting the Giant Animals of the Dark Continent 

IN menageries of civilized lands we gaze with wonder and at times 
with dread on the giant animals of Africa's plains, the huge, 
lumbering elephant, the treacherous, horned rhinoceros, the 
clumsy, water-haunting hippopotamus, the ferocious buffalo. But it 
is another thing to face these mighty creatures in their native haunts, 
free from bonds and bars, reigning in nature's majesty as lords of a 
broad domain, and resenting with brute fury man's intrusion within 
their empire. This Theodore Roosevelt, America's daring hunter, 
was to learn in his first encounter with the lordly elephant, the tusked 
and trunked monarch of the African plains. 

The story of this encounter is worth telling as one of imminent 
peril and thrilling incident. Untrained in the work before him, igno- 
rant of the peril he braved, he rashly invited death, and would have 
met it but for the warning voice of his comrade, F. C. Selous, one of 
the ablest and most experienced of African hunters. The incident in 
question took place on May 14, about three weeks after the party had 
reached the hunting fields and while they were yet new to the dan- 
gerous work before them. The party of hunters on this occasion con- 
sisted of Mr. Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and Mr. Selous, the three 
having set out on a hunting excursion near Machukos. 

No report had come in of elephants in that vicinity and no 
thought of meeting a herd of these huge creatures was in their minds 
as they made their way over the grass-grown and brush-covered 
plain. Animals, which are rarely out of sight in that part of Africa, 
were visible in the distance, antelopes and other harmless creatures, 
but the first to rouse in the -minds of the party the hunter's thrill was 
the sight of a dusky lion, moving half visibly through the tall grass 
on its way homeward to its lair after its night's scout. A shot 

(199). 



200 HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 

slightly wounded the great cat, and with a snarl of pain and fear it 
broke into a quick gallop across the plain, leading its pursuers for 
several miles and finally taking refuge in a close thicket. 

A wounded lion in such a covert is a dangerous beast and Selous 
strongly advised his companions not to follow it into its hiding place. 
But Roosevelt, excited by the hunt, was not to be restrained. In the 
absence of native beaters to drive out the lurking beast, he plunged 
into the thicket himself, finding it so close in places that he was obliged 
to creep forward on hands and knees. Selous followed this risky 
venture and Kermit brought up the rear. 

Selous was soon startled to see Colonel Roosevelt rise suddenly 
to his feet at a spot where a small opening was visible through a fnnge 
of tall grass. He w^as gazing keenly forward and lifting his rifle 
hastily to his shoulder. The trained hunter looked in the same direc- 
tion and to his surprise and alarm he saw a herd of about a dozen 
elephants advancing with stately tread through the open space, led 
by a huge, swaying tusker, at which Roosevelt was on the point of 
taking aim. The great-bodied animal was less than two hundred feet 
away. A shot at that distance was a perilous risk. Selous sprang 
forward with a start of alarm and whispered excitedly in the ear of 
his inexperienced companion: 

"Don't shoot! On your life, don't shoot! A bullet will bring a 
charge of the herd and we may be trampled to death! Follow me!" 

The ardent sportsman with reluctance lowered his rifle and fol- 
lowed the experienced hunter, who led them on a long detour to the 
leeward of the quick-scented animals. Reaching a safer spot, he bade 
his comrades to climb a tree i arby and hastily followed them himself 
into the branches. As they scrambled up the trunk they could hear 
the bushes and reeds cracking before the advance of the heavy-footed 
elephants, and in a minute or two more caught sight of them through 
a screen of lofty reeds that bordered their path. In a whisper Selous 
advised his excited comrade how to aim, and Roosevelt, raising his 
trusty Winchester, sent a half dozen bullets in rapid succession into 
the bulky leader of the herd. 

The wounded tusker, with a scream of pain, instantly charged in 
the line of fire, but fortunately for the hunters he had received a death 



HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 201 

wound, and when close to the tree went down with a crash ©n his 
knees. One more shot from the magazine gun and the huge brute 
rolled over dead. The remainder of the herd, terror stricken by the 
fall of their leader, broke and fled wildly through the bushes, heedless 
of the rain of balls which Kermit sent after them. Thus ended in 
safety one of the most perilous moments in Theodore Roosevelt's life. 
Had that first reckless shot left his gun the chance was great that not 
one of the party would have left that thicket alive. Providence, in the 
form of the hunter Selous, saved him from the inmiinent peril invited 
by his nervous and reckless haste. 

This was not the only event of that day's hunt. An hour later the 
party had the luck to meet a baby elephant, about two months old, a 
tiny creature which had probably been left behind in the wild flight 
of the herd and had since been blindly wandering over the open plain. 
A rope in the hands of a party of natives made it prisoner and it was 
brought alive into camp, its captor proposing to send it as a gift to the 
Zoological Garden of New York. For this purpose it was taken to 
Nairobi by a band of natives, to be sent thence to the seashore by rail. 
As for the fallen giant, it gave its hide and tusks to the cause of 
science. 

Such was one exciting example of Colonel Roosevelt's various 
encounters with the elephant, the monarch of animals alike for size 
and inborn intelligence. Capable of thought as this huge beast has 
proved itself to be in captivity, in its wild state and before the man 
with the rifle it has but two resources, flight from or a charge upon its 
foe. The latter is always a serious matter for the hunters, many of 
whom have been crushed under the feet or killed by the trunk of the 
elephant when infuriated by a wound. Such would probably have been 
Roosevelt's fate on the occasion in question but for the warning of the 
trained hunter at his elbow. 

In hunting the rhinoceros the danger is equally great — greater, 
in fact, for this dull-brained but irate monster frequently does not 
wait for provocation, but is apt to break into Wind rage at the sight of 
a man in its vicinity and charge upon him in sudden and sullen fury. 
Huge and clumsy as it appears, its speed of movement is never to be 
despised. Fortunately for the hunter, its little eyes have a short range 



202 HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 

of vision and its charge is a straightforward dash from which the 
alert hunter can escape by a quick spring to one side. But while the 
power of sight of the rhinoceros is poor, its scent is remarkably keen, 
and it can only be approached in safety from the leeward side. 

Colonel Roosevelt had many experiences with this thick-skinned 
brute. One of these we have described. Another worthy of mention, 
as showing the alertness of this great beast, took place while he was 
out hunting with Captain Slatter, the proprietor of an ostrich farm 
in the vicinity of Mount Kilimakia. 

On this excursion our hunters found game in abundance and of 
many kinds, the surly and grunting wart-hog being especially numer- 
ous. An interesting feature of this country was the numerous trails 
that crossed it, made alike by animals and men, the tracks of the latter 
being found everywhere, worn deep by thousands of feet during many 
generations. The trails were never straight, bending aside to right or 
left, doubtless to avoid some obstacle that originally existed. The 
fact that it has long disappeared never leads to a straightening of the 
path, the blacks following undeviatingly in the steps of their fore- 
fathers. 

As for the great beasts, these do not turn aside for minor obsta- 
cles, but tramp straightforward through their muddy haunts, alike in 
the open, in the sombre forest depths, thorny thickets, or reed- 
covered marshes. The trail of the hippopotamus is an especially curi- 
ous one. With an enormous body, borne on short, widely separated 
legs, the paths followed by this great creature in its nightly food raids 
on land consist of two deep muddy tracks with a grassy ridge between 
them, high enough to be swept by the belly of the waddling brute. 
An enormous appetite has the hippo, its yawning jaws sweeping in a 
barrel full of grass and plants at a mouthful. As a result, a hippo 
invasion of a plantation of the settlers is apt to be serious, and it is 
no wonder that they look upon this hungry river-hog as a nuisance to 
be eradicated. 

To return to the rhinoceros adventure from which these remarks 
have led us astray, we must put ourselves on the trail of Colonel 
Roosevelt and Captain Slatter in their hunt in the Mt. Kilimakia 
country. The first important fruit of this hunt was a bull eland, a fine 



HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 203 

example of Mr. Roosevelt's marksmanship, it being brought down at a 
quarter mile range. It had hardly fallen when the hunters caught 
sight of a large rhinoceros not far away and braced themselves for a 
more perilous encounter. 

As the wind came from the direction of the brute its keen powers 
of smell failed to warn it of the presence of man in its vicinity, while 
its twinkling eyes caught no sight of its human foes. So oblivious, 
indeed, was it of the presence of enemies that it actually lay down 
when they were only a hundred yards away and they had come within 
thirty yards before the recumbent brute became aware of their near- 
ness. Then, with extraordinary lightness and quickness for so heavy 
a creature, it sprang to its feet and turned upon its foes. 

At this critical moment Roosevelt pierced the leathery hide of the 
great brute with a bullet from a Holland rifle, the heaviest piece in his 
possession. With blood spurting from its nostrils, the maddened 
animal charged in fury upon its foes. A second bullet pierced its heart, 
but even this would not have stopped that mad rush had not Captain 
Slatter pierced its neck vertebras by a shot and toppled it over dead 
when within thirteen paces. The day's hunt had thus brought the 
hunters two valuable specimens, the eland and the rhinoceros, which 
were duly skinned for museum purposes by Mr. Heller the next 
morning. 

One cannot read of a hunting expedition to Africa without being 
astounded by the vast multitude and great variety of animals in the 
interior of that long-hidden continent. It is the true paradise of the 
zoologist. There is nothing to match it anywhere else upon the earth. 
And an interesting feature is that its animals differ from those to be 
seen elsewhere. With the exception of the elephant, rhinoceros and 
lion, which are found in Asia, there are few representatives of the 
African fauna in any other lands. 

This fact appealed strongly to Colonel Roosevelt. He had hunted 
in all parts of the United States and had been on the western plain 
before the bullet had robbed it completely of its swarming herds of 
buffaloes. His trusting rifle had brought down the grizzly bear, the 
Rocky Mountain sheep, the prong-horn antelope, the great elk and 
moose, and the graceful deer of the American hunting grounds. But 



204 HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 

what were these few species to the immense variety of African game 
animals, and what their numbers to the endless swarms of antelopes 
and various other strange creatures to be found on the East African 
hunting grounds, where the American hunters now found themselves ? 

Hardly a day did they go abroad without astonishment at the 
multitude of life surrounding them. The great herbivora — the ele- 
phant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus — were comparatively rare, while 
the skulking, night-hunting lion and leopard were rarely in evidence 
except when specially sought ; but the very many and often very beau- 
tiful species of antelopes, the swift zebra and lofty giraffe were rarely 
wanting, some species of them haunting the plains in extraordinary 
multitudes. Mr. Roosevelt gives abundant testimony to the vast num- 
bers of thes(i animals. While one day in ambush near Heatly's ranch 
he saw swarming herds, each of them hundreds in number, of zebras 
and hartebcests sweeping past his covert. These came on at an easy 
lope, the hartebeest (known also as the red kangoni and as the caama) 
running with their mouths open. This odd custom was usual with 
them, but the zebras opened their mouths only to neigh. 

He could have brought down dozens of these animals if his pur- 
pose had been merely to make a score of useless murders, but as he 
already had the specimens of these species that he needed and as the 
camp was fully supplied with meat, he let them pass unharmed. A true 
sportsman, he was very little given to shoot for the mere purpose of 
killing, and preferred to keep his bullets for the kind of game that was 
a peril to the country, the death of which might save human life. 

Thus when a fine ostrich passed him within easy rifle range he 
forbore to shoot, on the mental plea that ostrich farming was becom- 
ing an industry of that region. On the day in question the chief game 
got by him consisted of wart-hogs, which were plentiful, feeding on 
the open plain. After several failures, he succeeded in bringing down 
a good-sized boar, while Kermit got a sow with unusually long tusks. 
This he chased on horseback for about two miles and shot from the 
saddle as he galloped past, pulling trigger without bringing the piece 
to his shoulder. 

In regard to the other species of animals seen by Colonel Roose- 
velt in his hunting excursion, we must speak again of the great variety 



HUNTING THE ANIMALS OF THE DARK CONTINENT 20.^ 

of antelopes, from the beautiful little gazelle, with its slender limbs 
and graceful body, to the great eland, as large as an ox. These are 
the animals which form the chief food of the lion and leopard; while 
another creature not yet spoken of, the hyena, lurks about to destroy 
dead or weakened animals of any species. Even the lion, when old 
and weak, is not often left to die a natural death, but is apt to fall a 
prey to these prowling scavengers. Cowards as they have the reputa- 
tion of being, the hyenas are very strong in the jaws and can easily 
crush the bones of their prey. 

Mr. Roosevelt was especially interested in the birds of Africa, of 
which he observed many varieties strange to him, frequently remark- 
able for beauty of color or form, while many of them' were excellent 
singers. Among those that especially attracted his attention were the 
black whydah finches, the odd dancing habit of which struck him as 
highly curious. The male bird, which develops a splendid tail during 
the breeding season, makes dancing rings in the grass about two feet 
wide, a tuft of grass being left in the center and the rest cut close down. 
The dancing consists of a succession of hops into the air, and where 
there are many of these rings it is a singular sight to observe the con- 
tinuous leaping up and down of the birds. 

The country in which the Roosevelt party did their chief hunting 
differed little in appearance from one of our own prairie states, and 
might have resembled them still more but for the superabundance of 
animal life; monkeys and leopards in the trees, zebras and antelopes 
on the open plain, the great variety and abundance of birds, and in the 
rivers the huge hippopotami and scaled crocodiles. The latter haunt 
the rivers of tropical Africa in great numbers and are so ferocious 
and dangerous as to add greatly to the perils which that country pre- 
sents to its dusky inhabitants as well as to its white invaders. Fortu- 
nately Colonel Roosevelt and his party passed through all the dangers 
from wild beasts and deadly diseases in safety, their hunting trip being 
in every sense one of complete success, while few had ever dwelt so long 
in Africa and preserved such rugged health. 



CHAPTER XXV 

In the Sotik Wilderness and on Lake Naivasha 

MR. ROOSEVELT'S hunting was done in two methods. One 
of these was that described in the last chapter, in which our 
hunter made his headquarters in some gentleman's residence 
and took daily excursions into the ample surrounding plains : now for 
the mere pleasure of an outing in the African highlands ; now to bring 
down some coveted specimen of the superabundant animal life — ante- 
lope, zebra, or girafife; now in pursuit of such dangerous game as 
the rhinoceros or elephant. The other method was that with which 
we are now concerned, in which the hunter cut loose from civilized 
ways, marched with his train of porters into the wilderness, tenting 
at night, hunting when the sought-for grounds were reached, and 
carrying his prizes with him as he made his way through untrodden 
wilds. 

Shall we describe the train of Mr. Roosevelt on one of these expe- 
ditions? Had we been there when he went "on safari," we should 
have seen a long line of sturdy blacks, heavily laden yet cheerful and 
happy under their loads, for had not each received a new suit of 
clothes and was not each to be well paid at his journey's end? Strong, 
good-natured fellows these, fond of song and dance, yet little more 
than grown-up children, with hasty tempers and apt to become surly 
with no good cause; yet at most times easily managed and ready to 
stride along under their fifty- or sixty-pound load for as many hours 
or miles as their leaders wished them to go. 

Odd-looking fellows they, wearing the blouse or jersey and the 
drawers which the government demands, but fond of adding some fan- 
tastic addition to their attire, perhaps a ragged coat, a skin cap, or a red 
fez, with feathers thrust into it, or some more savage head dress, may- 
hap made up of strips of skin decorated with an empty tin can. An 

(-'o6) 



IN THE SOT IK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 207 

umbrella to them is a delight, though they are quite able to walk 
during the midday hours with bare heads under the tropical sun. Even 
a folded and faded umbrella serves the purpose, that of winning the 
admiration or the envy of their fellows. 

The route of the safari, or traveling excursion, is rarely a silent 
one. The jolly porters are fond of enlivening their way by blowing 
horns or whistles or beating on little tomtoms. At intervals they chant 
some savage ditty or repeat in unison some favorite word or phrase, 
often destitute of sense or meaning. 

At the head of the line, and at intervals along its course, march 
the askiris, or rifle-bearing soldiers, men mostly unable to hit a barn- 
door with a bullet, yet good for camp police duty. Next comes the 
head-man, bearing no burden, and carrying a dirty-white umbrella in 
his hand as his symbol of authority. After him is the flag-bearer, 
holding aloft the American flag — a banner which the porters view 
with respect and pride and not without awe. Next in the line is a man 
blowing on an antelope horn or beating an empty can as a drum. Then 
the long line of burden bearers in single file stretch out far over the 
plains. 

Their loads consist of tents, bedding, provisions, cooking utensils, 
etc., done up in packages and carried on head, back, or shoulder. 
Camping ground reached, the tents are quickly set up, water and fire- 
wood sought, and all made ready for the night's rest. The tents are 
pitched in two long lines, the front one for sleeping purposes, the rear 
one containing the cook, provision, store, skinning, and other service 
tents. The scene at night is a picturesque one. Before each of the 
porters' tents a little cooking fire may be seen, with pots and pans 
upon it, and here and there larger fires, surrounded by chatting groups 
of tired and hungry men. Before the tents of the whites marches an 
askari, rifle on shoulder, doing sentry duty. In fact, soon after Roose- 
velt and his comrades reached the camping place the porters might 
be seen coming, singing or chanting, into camp, the tents being put 
in place, the fires lit, the supper cooked, and all quickly looking as if 
the camp were a week old. 

During the period spent by the Roosevelt expedition in the hunt- 
ing grounds of West Africa various such excursions needed to be 



2o8 IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 

made, occasions in which they cut loose from civilized conditions 
of the settled region and marched into the wilds, uninvaded as yet 
by the plantation and the lazy ease and comfort of civilization, and 
left free to the rule of untamed nature. It is the experience of the 
American hunters on one of these untrammeled excursions which 
v/e here propose to describe.. 

They had hitherto been hunting in a partly settled and civil- 
ized land, traversed by a railway, the country divided largely into 
gentlemen's estates, with a city in its midst, and rapidly becoming 
a Avhite man's land. Game was there still in abundance, of many 
varieties, partly on these estates, partly on the unclaimed district. 
But this was not the Africa of which Colonel Roosevelt had read. 
It was growing too civilized. He wanted to see the continent as 
Stanley and Livingstone had seen and traversed it in its pristine 
state, with only the negroes for inhabitants and as yet uninvaded by 
civilization. Such was the motive of his journey to the hunting 
grounds of the Sotik wilderness. 

The district which he now sought lies in the southern part of 
Kiskuni province, about fifty miles from Lake Naivasha and seventy- 
five miles east of the Victoria Nyanza to the southwest of the route 
of the East African Railway. It is difficult, if not dangerous, of access, 
the region between it and the settled country being a broad stretch 
of rainless and waterless desert. A journey of two and a half days 
was needed to cross this barren tract, and to do so water had to be 
carried. The thirst belt was its appropriate name. To accomi)lish 
this necessary purpose four African carts were obtained, three of 
them being drawn by seven or eight yoke of oxen each, the other by 
a smaller number. There were difficult guUeys to cross, needing 
a powerful train to surmount them. 

In that tropical climate, high above sea-level as they were, the 
sun shines with an intensity that renders travel under a cloudless 
sky anything but agreeable, and the journey to the Sotik district was 
made mostly by night. While more comfortable, this was more 
difficult, and would not have been attempted but that it was the 
period of a full moon and Luna lighted their bushy path with her 
mild rays. The party rested during the hotter period of the day, 



IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 209 

covered, as they lay on the gi-ound, with their overcoats and blankets. 
This was necessary to save them from the attacks of the multitudinous 
insects that hunted the hunters with insatiable appetite. 

That Colonel Roosevelt lost no time, but kept himself and 
those with him incessantly active, need not be reiterated. On June 
4th, the day before setting out for Sotik, he visited the local station 
of the African Inland Mission and made one of his characteristic 
speeches, in which he warmly lauded the work of the mission. 
During the morning he had been in the field with his comrades in 
search of monkeys, the chief prizes on this occasion falling to Mr. 
Heller, the naturalist of the expedition, who bagged three Colobus 
and one green-faced monkey. Kermit Roosevelt won two Colobi as 
his share of the game. 

\Vhen the Sotik district was reached, after their tramp through 
the waterless wilderness, the hunters found themselves in a well- 
watered region and one abundantly supplied with wild game. It 
was a land of grassy meadows and clumps of forest, interlaced by 
streams, its inhabitants being a tribe calling themselves the Kisii, 
a warlike but good-natured and intelligent race of blacks. Their 
industry consisted in farming, which they practiced with skill and 
success. 

In this district and the adjacent one of Guasi Niryiso the 
hunters met with gratifying success, game being abundant. The 
much-desired white rhinoceros, however, was not in evidence, though 
they sought for it over many miles of country. At a later date, 
however, they got all the specimens desired of this rare beast. 

Their experience in these hunting grounds was much like that 
around Nairobi and need not be given in detail. It will suffice to 
say in general that wild beasts fell in goodly numbers and wide 
variety before their death-dealing weapons, and important additions 
were made to the tributes to science obtained for the Smithsonian 
and National Museums. 

On June 2 2d camp was made on the Loretta Plains and before 
that day ended Colonel Roosevelt had added another lion to his 
score. His son Kermit was still more successful, his unerring rifle 
bringing down a very large tawny-maned lion, the largest of this 

14 



2IO IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 

variety obtained by the expedition. In addition his well aimed 
bullets reached two cheetahs. 

The cheetah is an animal which is often spoken of as the hunting 
leopard. It is of about the size of the leopard, but is much less 
fierce. While wild in Africa, it has long been domesticated in Persia 
and India, packs of cheetahs being kept by Indian princes for the 
purpose of hunting deer and antelopes. In the domestic state it 
resembles the dog in being very fond of attention and repaying 
kindness with affection. When used in the hunting field the head 
of the cheetah is kept covered with a leather hood until it comes 
v/ithin two hundred yards of the game. When the hood is removed 
and the animal permitted to see the game, it creeps stealthily towards 
its prey, taking advantage of every bush or inequality in the ground. 
This goes on rmtil the animals stalked show signs of alarm, when the 
alert creature is among them with a few bounds, strikes down its 
victim with a blow of its paw, and instantly tears open the throat 
and begins to suck the blood of the fallen deer or antelope. If unsuc- 
cessful it does not follow the herd by running, but comes creeping 
back to the hunters as if ashamed. In fact, it seems incapable of a 
burst of sustained speed and depends solely on a lurking approach 
and a sudden dash. 

There succeeded an adventure in which Colonel Roosevelt ran 
one of the greatest risks in his hunting career, one of those ever- 
present perils to which the hunter in Africa is at all times exposed. 
On one of his hunting trips a large black-maned lion had been put up 
and had taken refuge, as is its wont, in a small clump of bushes. 
Roosevelt followed it with his usual daring enthusiasm, while the 
beaters sought to drive the lurking beast from its lair. 

Suddenly the infuriated creature, with a growl of rage, broke 
from the bush, its head erect, its tail waving. The hunter stood 
before it, not many paces away. Roaring defiance the great maned 
cat sprang forward, charging upon him with the speed of a catapult. 
It was a moment of deadly peril for the ex- President, one in which 
only his cool courage and skill as a marksman saved him from 
probable death. Rifle at shoulder, with quick but steady aim he 
let drive at the charging brute. The bullet caught the animal in 



IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 211 

mid career, striking in a mortal spot, and down came the ferocious 
beast in a heap almost at the hunter's feet. Death had met the 
bounding animal full face in its charge, but it had been a narrow 
call for the hunter, who, as he rested for a moment on his rifle, felt 
that he had been nearer death than ever in his life before. But with 
this feeling was one of gratified pride that he owed his safety to 
himself alone and had in that moment of peril taken rank with the 
great hunters of the world. The bullet had struck the animal full 
in the middle of the chest and torn through heart and body in a 
death-dealing course. 

We have given only a few of the adventures of the hunters in 
the Sotik country. While the otie just described was much the most 
perilous, their trip was attended with daily perils. To Mr. Roose- 
velt's bag of game he added a splendidly maned lion, a lioness, four 
rhinoceroses and three buffaloes, while Kermit brought down a big 
bull eland, a lioness and two rhinos. To these must be added a 
great variety of other game which fell to the lot of both. 

Of these the eland must be classed among the big game, though 
it does not rank with the perilous ones. Trusting to its legs for 
safety and very alert in its movements, it is hard to approach within 
sure rifle range, and the hunter is often obliged to try his luck at four 
hundred yards or even greater distances. Roosevelt brought down 
a big bull on the Athi plains when a quarter mile away, but a mortal 
shot at this range is a very uncertain problem. He tells us that the 
eland is as heavy as a fat ox and that a herd of them looks like a 
troop of handsome cattle, yet their agility is so great that he had 
seen a cow leap clear over the backs of others that were in its way. 

While the eland trusts to fiight from the hunter for safety, the 
buffalo is far more likely to miake "ts flight towards the hunter, on 
deadly work intent. It is, in tact, one of the most savage and 
dangerous of African animals, probably surpassing the lion in the 
number of hunters slain by it. The three buffaloes brought down 
by Mr. Roosevelt in this excursion were not got without greater 
risk than that run in shooting the four rhinos which he scored to 
his credit. 

In one of his hunts for buffalo in the Nairobi district, a herd of 



2 12 IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 

nearly a hundred of these savage brutes was put up. These had 
their lurking place in a papyrus swamp bordering a small river, the 
animals having made many trails through the swampy ooze. It was 
their habit to graze in the neighboring grassy plains, spending the 
night in the swamp and feeding by day. If they had devoted them- 
selves to the grass alone no harm would have been done, but there 
was always danger of their invading the planted fields and seriously 
damaging the growing crops. In addition to this was their tendency 
at times to charge furiously on any one who came near them, a habit 
which had led to many deaths. For this reason the planters wel- 
comed anyone who helped to abate this nuisance and were glad to 
abet the desire of the Roosevelt party to add to their prizes a num- 
ber of these ferocious creatures. 

The buffalo is a wary beast and not easy to stalk, but on the 
first outing of the American hunters in the swamp district they were 
able, by keeping under shelter of the bushy fringe of the swamp, to 
approach within fifty yards of four bulls which were grazing out on 
the plain. At this close distance the animals shewed signs of alarm, 
and Mr. Roosevelt and his son quickly let them have it right and 
left. Instead of making for the swamp, the startled animals ran out 
into the plain, with the result that in the end all four of them were 
bagged. Two of the bulls fell dead in the field, the others, desperately 
wounded, took refuge in the swamp, and the hunters sent their dogs 
in to rout them out. This proved unfortunate to one of the dogs, 
which crawled out with a mortal hurt from the horn of one of the 
wounded beasts. These died in the swamp and eventually science 
was enriched with the skins and skulls of three of the slain animals. 

On a later trip the hunters stalked some buffaloes in the swamp 
land, wounding two of them. There was nothing to show that more 
than a few were present, when suddenly, to the surprise and alarm 
of the party, a herd of not less than seventy or eighty of these great 
creatures rushed out into the plain, swung round in a long curve, and 
halted facing the hunters. 

The lives of the whole party at that moment were in imminent 
danger. Had the brutes charged upon them with their accustomed 
fury not a man of them could have escaped alive. Nerve was wanted. 



IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 213 

Had any man shown the white feather and started to run it would 
have been sure to provoke a charge. Had a shot been fired it would 
have roused the latent ferocity of the dangerous beasts, with the same 
result. The imperiled hunters were obliged to stand motionless and 
stare back at the staring herd. As it proved, the movement of the 
animals was due only to curiosity. After a few seconds of intense sus- 
pense, the hunters were overjoyed to see their horned foes wheel again 
and rush away across the plain. The peril had passed; their lives 
were saved ; but never before had any of them gone through a minute 
of such deadly risk. 

At the end of the five weeks ' hunt in Sotik the Roosevelt expedi- 
tion set out on their return, heading now towards Lake Naivasha, in 
the Rift Valley, where it was proposed to hunt for hippopotami. Mr. 
Roosevelt desired to bag three of these animals for the Smithsonian 
Institution, a bull, a cow, and a calf; also to obtain a specimen of the 
rare dig-dig antelope, a bushback and a baboon. He had been invited 
to spend a season on Captain R. Attenborough's farm, Saigai Sai, 
adjoining the lake, the captain offering him the use of his launch in his 
hippo hunts. 

The journey outward from Sotik resembled the inward one. 
Though pursuing a different route, it was over a practically waterless 
country as before, long marches being made with such supplies of this 
necessary liquid as they could take with them in their carts Near 
the end of their journey the water gave out and they sought a known 
water-hole on the line of march, only to find it absolutely dry. That 
night they had to go without water. 

Reaching the shores of Lake Naivasha, the camp was pitched in 
a sandy and dusty spot, the water-side being fringed with a growth 
of papyrus, bush and thorn trees. This place was reached on July 13. 
On the 14th the camp was visited by a newspaper correspondent who 
had ridden thither twenty-five miles on a bicycle. He was warmly 
greeted and had the good fortune to see ex- President Roosevelt on the 
lake in a hippopotamus hunt. It gave the looker-on a thrill of appre- 
hension to see the daring hunter in a frail rowing boat at the moment 
that a huge hippopotamus was in the act of charging the craft. Un- 
used to such scenes, the newspaper man found it difficult to control 



214 !^ THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 

his nerves as he witnessed what seemed the imminent danger of the 
distinguished man before him. Yet his spasm of dread was changed 
to dehght when he saw Roosevelt take quick but steady aim and pull 
the trigger and beheld the great beast flop back in the water, killed 
by the close shot. He described it as a thrillingly sportsmanlike act. 

The situation of the camp was one not unattended with danger, 
the route round the lake being infested by lions. Three of these 
brutes had chased the correspondent on his ride. But a more exciting 
experience was that of Leslie A. Tarleton, a citizen of Naivasha, who 
had gone with the party to the Sotik district as a scout and left it 
on July 19 to return home. Riding on horseback across the plain, 
to his alarm he found no less than five lions on his path, "big, black- 
maned man-eaters," as he described them. They kept close on his 
track, now skulking away when in the open, now closing in on him 
when bush began again, and more than once seeming near enough 
to spring on the lone rider. The frightened horse m.ade all the 
speed it could from the chase of these dangerous brutes, but the rider 
was glad enough when the town cam.e within view and the man-eaters 
skulked in disappointment away. 

While at Captain Attenborough 's ranch Colonel Roosevelt had 
an adventure with the great water beasts of the lake far more thril- 
ling than that which the correspondent had seen. On this occasion, 
while on Lake Naivasha in search of hippopotami with two native 
attendants in a small boat, the party was unexpectedly assailed by 
a herd of these huge monsters. The peril was extreme, as at the 
critical moment the natives were thrown into a panic. Some of the 
brutes had dived under the frail craft and sought to lift it on their 
clumsy heads. Had it been overturned it would have been fatal to 
the hunters. Coolness and nerve were needed at this moment of 
peril and they did not fail the daring American. He shot two of 
the largest of the hippopotami, scared away the others with his 
shots, and came triumphantly ashore, sending out a launch to tow 
in his floating prizes. 

While at Naivasha Colonel Mearns, the physician of the expedi- 
tion, was sent for in haste to give the benefit of his experience to three 
natives, who had been attacked and severely m.auled by a lion. The 



IN THE SOTIK WILDERNESS AND ON LAKE NAIVASHA 215 

doctor rode forty miles for this purpose, but succeeded in saving only 
one of the lion's victims, the other two dying. 

After his stay at Captain Attenborough 's ranch Roosevelt pro- 
ceeded to Njoro, the ranch of Lord Delamere, one of the gamewardens 
of the protectorate, where he enjoyed a ten days' hunt. From 
there he returned to Nairobi in early August, with the intention of 
making a hunting excursion to Mount Kenya. In the latter place he 
and the party under his command proposed to sjDend six weeks, 
hoping to get a few more elephants as part of his game. As the 
hunting party had no adventures of thrilling character there we shall 
not follow them to that region. 

On August 5 Mr. Roosevelt returned to Nairobi, then the scene 
of an exciting event, for it was the week of the annual race meet and 
the ranchers from a long distance round had gathered for the festive 
occasion. It was made an event of special interest at this time by 
the presence of the recent President of the United States, a man of 
international reputation and who was made the guest of honor at 
many dinners. It was at one of these that he was presented with the 
silver and gold mounted rhinoceros and elephant feet described in 
a formicr chapter. He enjoyed the races with the zest of a born 
sportsman and was very willing that Kermit should take part in 
several of the racing events. There was too much going on in town 
for him to trouble himself with hunting on this occasion, though he 
did make one field record in shooting hares at night with the aid of a 
bicycle lamp. 

Mr. Roosevelt's plans included a himt with Lord Delamere in 
the Njoro region in November and a journey to Uganda in December, 
preliminary to his seeking the Nile in the following February. On 
October 20th he reached Naivasha in company with Cuninghame, the 
Scotch scout, having just finished an extended hunt. Those who 
met him found him extraordinarily embrowned from the rays of the 
African sun, but in the pink of health, and he and his son alike proud 
and delighted in the stories they had to tell of their prowess in each 
bringing down an elephant when no professional hunter was with 
them. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

On the Victoria Nyanza 

PORT FLORENCE, at which the lake station of the East African 
Railway has been established, is by no means the best terminus 
that could have been found for this road. The location is 
unhealthy, partly from its climatic conditions, partly from the 
tendency of the sewage to accumulate in the shallow inlet. A far 
better terminus, one seemingly prepared by nature, would have been 
at Port Victoria, where there is much deeper water and a more salu- 
brious climate. The only thing in its way was the question of cost, 
as the road would have had to be carried considerably farther and 
over difficult ground. Yet, as traffic on the lake increases, the road 
will eventually have to be taken to that point, unless the whole level 
of the lake is lifted by a dam across its outlet at Ripon Falls. 

The landing from the railway train at Port Florence is, fortu- 
nately, not the end of civilized rapid transit in this region. From the 
wharf one may step on board a steamboat of spacious proportions and 
as neat and perfect in its appointments as if its port of entry was 
New York or Liverpool. Its low and wide decks are kept spotlessly 
clean ; the crew, though of ebony complexion, are smartly dressed and 
very efficient under the command of skilled British officers; the table 
is excellent, there is a well-furnished library, together with baths, 
electric lights and all needed conveniences. 

Those who find themselves on board this modern ship in the 
depths of the late savage Africa, certainly have reason to bless their 
lucky stars that they are not confined to the crude former methods of 
navigation on this magnificent inland sea. Darting along at a speed 
of ten miles an hour upon a great freshwater lake as large as the 
whole of Scotland, and at an elevation higher than that of Scotland's 
highest mountains, is a pleasant sensation worth the journey to expe- 
rience. With cool air and splendid scenery, except when out of sight 
of land and environed only by sea and sky, the travelers of our day 

(316) 



ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 217 

now they glide past forested coasts with blue mountains rising in the 
distance, now other scenes of varied beauty attract them, and all this 
in the heart of Africa, on the line of the Equator, and at an elevation 
of four thousand feet above the sea. Certainly it is an experience 
greatly to be enjoyed and long to be remembered. 

Voyagers on the lake, except those intent on geographical dis- 
covery, do not follow it for its entire length or trace the extended line 
cf its coast waters, but simply cross its northern waters to the port 
of Entebbe on its northeastern side. This is the administrative center 
of the British Protectorate of Uganda, an interesting country with 
which we must deal in a chapter by itself. In the present one our 
interest lies in the lake itself. 

This immense body of water, an inland sea occupying a large sec- 
tion of east central Africa, is notable not alone for its size and for 
its high elevation, but is of the highest interest for another reason, 
since it is the source of one of the greatest and most famous rivers 
cf the world, the historic and world-renowned Nile, the stream which 
has made Egypt and to which Egypt has given fame and glory. The 
source of this gi"and river was long unknown. It was traced farther 
and farther into Africa, travelers following southward step by step 
through endless hardships and difficulties. Still it held its own, a 
broad, deep stream, evidently coming from a great distance, but its 
origin was not discovered until about fifty years ago, when Captain 
John H. Speke reached the great lake which he named Victoria 
Nyanza, in honor of the English queen. 

This signal discovery was made on the lothof July, 1858, at the 
end of a long and toilsome journey which he had made with Captain 
Richard F. Burton from Zanzibar. Speke was satisfied in his own 
mind that this great lake was the source of the great river whose 
origin had long excited so much interest, and on his return home suc- 
ceeded in inducing the Royal Geographical Society to send him out 
on a second exploring expedition to this interesting region. 

Setting out in i860 with another British officer. Captain Grant, 
he found himself in the summer of 1862 again gazing on the noble 
lake, and being confident now, from information received from the 
natives, that the Nile flowed from the northern end of the Victoria 



2i8 ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 

Nyanza, he set out in search of its outlet. Success now attended 
his efforts, and on the 21st of July he reached the river whose source 
had been sought so long and with such ardent enthusiasm. 

His discovery of its outlet from the lake is a story replete with 
interest. The northern shore of the lake is long and broken, being 
diversified by hundreds of gulfs and inlets, with nothing to distin- 
guish one from the other. No current is felt until within a few miles 
of the falls, and the explorers might have searched the lake for a year 
without discovering the spot. Yet as he drifted and paddled over 
its broad surface a slight increase was felt in the pace of his canoe and 
a far-off murmur told him of the nearness of the place he sought, 
that in which the waters of the lake were drawn into the mighty river. 

We give in his own words the story of how he finally reached the 
much-sought-f or stream : 

" Here at last, ' ' he writes, " I stood on the brink of the Nile; most 
beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it ! It was the very per- 
fection of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly kept park ; with a mag- 
nificent stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted 
with islets and rocks, the former occupied by the fishermen's huts, 
the latter by many crocodiles basking in the sun, fiowing between 
fine grassy banlcs, with rich trees and plantations in the background, 
where herds of the hartebeest could be seen grazing, while the hippo- 
potami were snorting in the water, and florikin and guinea-fowl rising 
at our feet. ' ' 

They proceeded up the left bank of the Nile, at some distance 
from the stream, passing through rich jungle and plantain gardens, 
and reached the Isamba Rapids on the 25th of July. The river is 
here extremely beautiful. The water runs between deep banks which 
are covered with fine grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of lilac 
convolvuli. On the 28th, they reached Ripon Falls, after a long 
march over rough hills, and through extensive village plantations 
lately devastated by elephants. But they were well rewarded, for 
these falls, down which the waters of the lake pour into the river, 
were the most interesting sight that Speke had yet seen in Africa. 
" Everybody, ' ' he says, " ran to see them at once, though the march 
had been long and fatiguing, and even my sketch-book was called 



ON THE VICTORIA NY AN Z A 219 

into play. Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I 
expected; for the broad surface of the lake was shut out from view 
by a spur of hill, and the falls, about 12 feet deep, and 400 to 500 feet 
broad, were broken by rocks. Still it was a sight that attracted one 
to it for hours — the roar of the waters, the thousands of passenger- 
fish, leaping at the falls with all their might, the Wasoga and Waganda 
fishermen coming out in boats and taking post on all the rocks, with 
rod and hook, hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, 
the ferry at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at 
the margin of the lake, made, in all, with the pretty nature of the 
country^small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the folds, and gar- 
dens on the lower slopes — as interesting a picture as one could wish 
to see, ' ' 

" The expedition, ' ' he adds, " had now perfonp.ed its functions. 
I saw that Old Father Nile without any doubt rises in the Victoria 
Nyanza, and, as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the 
holy river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief. 
I mourned, however, when I thought how much time I had lost by 
the delays in the journey which had deprived me of the pleasure of 
going to look at the northeast corner of the Nyanza to see what con- 
nection there was, by a strait frequently spoken of, between it and 
the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt, and from 
which another river flowed to the north, making 'Usoga an island. * 
Btit I felt I ought to be content with what I had been spared to accom- 
plish, for I had seen full half of the lake, and had information given 
me of the other half, by means of which I knew all about the lake, as 
far, at least, as the chief objects of geographical importance were 
concerned. 

The cataract by which the Nile leaves its parent lake was named 
by the discoverer Ripon Falls, in honor of the President of the 
Royal Geographical Society, and the area of water from which it 
issued he named Napoleon Channel, out of respect to the French Geo- 
graphical Society, which had presented him its gold medal in honor 
of his discovery of the lake. 

Since this day the source of the Nile has been frequently visited 
and Ripon Falls looked upon by hundreds of tourists, among them 



220 ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 

the members of the Roosevelt expedition. Many descriptions of it 
might be quoted, of which a brief and graphic one is the following 
from the pen of Winston Spencer Churchill : 

"Although the cataract is on a moderate scale, both in height and 
volume, its aspect — and still more its situation — is impressive. The 
exit or overflow of the Great Lake is closed by a natural rampart or 
ridge of black rock, broken or worn away in two main gaps to release 
the waters. Through these the Nile leaps at once into majestic being, 
and enters upon its course as a perfect river three hundred yards 
wide. Standing upon the reverse side of the wall of the rock, one's 
eye may be almost on a plane with the shining levels of the lake. At 
your feet, literally a yard away, a vast green slope of water races 
downward. Below are foaming rapids, fringed by splendid trees, 
and pools from which great fish leap continually in the sunlight." 

At the output, on the lake shore, has grown up a town with the 
unmusical name of Jinja, of which Mr. Churchill writes : 

"Jinja is destined to become a very important place in the future 
economy of Central Africa. Situated at the point where the Nile 
flows out of the Great Lake, it is at once on the easiest line of water 
communication with Lake Albert and the Soudan, and also a place 
where great waterpower is available. In years to come the shores 
of this splendid bay may be crowned with long rows of comfortable 
tropical villas and imposing offices, and the gorge of the Nile crowded 
with factories and warehouses. There is power enough to gin all 
the cotton and saw all the wood in Uganda, and it is here that one 
of the principal emporia of tropical produce will certainly be created. 
In these circumstances it is a pity to handicap the town with an out- 
landish name. It would be much better to call it Ripon Falls, after 
the beautiful cascades which lie beneath it, and from whose force its 
future prosperity will be derived. 

"The Ripon Falls are, for their own sake, well worth a visit. 
The Nile springs out of the Victoria Nyanza, a vast body of water 
nearly as wide as the Thames at Westminster Bridge, and this impos- 
ing river rushes down a stairway of rock from fifteen to twenty feet 
deep, in smooth, swirling slopes of green water. It would be per- 
fectly easy to harness the whole river and let the Nile begin its long 



I 



ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 221 

and beneficent journey to the sea by leaping through a turbine. It 
is possible that nowhere else in the world could so enormous a mass 
of water be held up by so little masonry. Two or three short dams 
from island to island across the falls would enable, at an incon- 
ceivably small cost, the whole level of the Victoria Nyanza — over 
an expanse of a hundred and fifty thousand square miles — to be 
gradually raised six or seven feet ; would greatly increase the available 
water-power; would deepen the water in Kavirondo Bay, so as to 
admit steamers of much larger draught; and, finally, would enable 
the lake to be maintained at a uniform level, so that immense areas 
of swampy foreshore, now submerged, now again exposed, according 
to the rainfalls, would be converted either into clear water or dry 
land." 

The hundred and fifty thousand square miles, with which Mr. 
Churchill credits the lake, must be due to a slip of the pen — unless 
he includes in it the whole catchment basin. The actual area is 
under thirty thousand square miles, but even with this it is nearly the 
size of Ireland or Scotland and forms a very respectable body of 
water. Yet it is fed by only a few small affluents, and it is thought 
that much of its water must be derived from springs in its bed. Of 
these streams, the Kagera, entering from the west, is the longest, 
and may be regarded as the ultimate soiirce of the Nile. This great 
river, therefore, rises several degrees south of the Equator and 
stretches its sinuous length through more than thirty degrees of 
latitude. 

We are here epitomizing the story of this splendid and beautiful 
lake, almost the size of our own noble Lake Superior, and upon which 
Colonel Roosevelt gazed with all the delight of a bom lover of nature. 
It must be taken for granted that he did not fail to see Ripon Falls, 
so picturesquely described by Speke and Churchill, or to take the 
opportunity to visit the other chief points of interest on the lake, 
during his extended stay in that region. 

On its eastern banks he saw much to interest him in the natives, 
as yet hardly touched by the transforming hand of civilization, and 
wearing still their primal garb, which consisted chiefly of a jet-black- 
skin. Sir Harry Johnstone cleverly describes them, saying that those 



222 



ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 



who visit this region before the advent of civilization, will see before 
them coal-black/handsomely formed negroes and negresses without 
a shred of clothing, though with many adornments in the way of 
hippopotamus teeth, bead necklaces, earrings, and leglets of brass. 
They are very picturesque as they strut about the streets in their 
innocent nudity, decked with barbaric ornaments. 

"The men wear not one earring, but fifteen! Holes are pierced 
all round the outer edge of the ear, and in these are inserted brass 
fillets, like melon seeds in shape, to which are attached coarse blue 
beads of large size and dull appearance. These beads the knowing 
tourist should collect while they can be purchased, as they are of 
mysterious origin and great interest. They have apparently reached 
this part of the world from Nubia in some very ancient trading inter- 
course between Egypt and these countries of the upper Nile. As the 
figures thus exhibited are usually models for a sculptor, this nudity 
is blameless and not to be discouraged; moreover, it characterizes 
the most moral people in the Uganda protectorate. 

" This ebon statuary lives in pretty little villages, which are clus- 
ters of straw huts (glistening gold in the sun's rays), encircled with 
fences of aloes, which have red, green, and white mottled leaves, and 
beautiful columns and clusters of coral-red stalks and flowers. There 
are a few shady trees that from their appearance might very well be 
elms but are not, and some extraordinary euphorbias, which grow 
upright with the trunk of a respectable tree and l)urst into uncounted 
sickly green spidery branches. Herds of parti-colored goats and 
sheep, and cattle that are black and white and fawn color, diversify 
these surroundings with their abrupt patches of light and color. 

"They belong to the better class of Bantu negroes, of that 
immense group of African peoples which has dominated the whole 
southern third of Africa from the regions of the White Nile and 
Victoria Nyanza to the upper Congo, Kamarun, Zanzibar and Zulu- 
land. " 

Speaking of the herds of the natives, it may be said that the 
scientists of the Department of Agriculture have done much to 
improve them. There is a government stock farm at Naivasha in the 
work of which Mr. Roosevelt took great interest. Official experi- 



ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA 2 -'5 

menters are there engaged in crossing herds to obtain domestic 
animals adapted to the chmate and country and at the same time 
superior in profit-yielding quality. The hump of the African ox, 
for instance, disappears in the first generation, and in the next he 
more nearly resembles the European animal. By supplying settlers 
and natives with stock improved in this way, it is expected that the 
herds will be multiplied many times in value. 

The same may be said of the sheep, which has been similarly 
improved. In the various flocks visible may be seen the native 
breed, the half-bred, three-quarter bred and full bred English, the 
improvement visible being surprisingly great. That Mr. Roosevelt 
was thoroughly interested in this transformation goes without 
saying. He saw specimens of the native sheep, rough and hairy, to 
the untrained eye looking more like a goat than a sheep. Yet this 
imdeveloped animal, when crossed with the Sussex or the improved 
Australian type, becomes a woolly beast that is very evidently 
a sheep. A second cross makes another great improvement, and 
soon the breeder has a flock that it is hard to distinguish from those 
of English fields, yet one that is better adapted to the sun and 
clime of Africa. 

In this way a remarkable change is produced alike in the ox 
and the sheep. The purpose of the experimental farm is not only 
to produce an improved type adapted to the conditions of the 
locality, but also to supply the farmers with blooded animals which 
will add greatly to the value of their flocks. This work is prosecuted 
with the greatest zeal and enthusiasm, though the experimenters 
are hampered by want of funds and seriously tioubled by the 
ravages of the East Coast fever. 

This malady, to which their animals are very subject, came into 
the province from German East Africa several years ago, and i? 
gradually spreading despite all efforts to check it. A cow attacked 
by it win live thirty days or more, during which the ticks which 
attack it are infected with the poison of the disease and transmit 
it to other cattle which may pass over the same ground. Experi- 
n.snt has shown that the ticks hold the virulent disease germs f"^T 
a year, and in that time they may infect many animals. 



z^4 ON THE VIC^rxyJUA NYANZA 

Thus the efforts of the stock-breeders are largely negatived. 
Left to themselves the natives would be helpless and the disease 
spread until all their cattle were exterminated. But that is not the 
method of the trained workers of the Department of Agriculture. 
One way to clear the ground of its peril is to put sheep upon it, 
which are not harmed by the poison from the tick. Others are to 
divide the country up into fields by wire fencing, and thus keep the 
cattle within uninfected areas; to destroy suspected animals; to 
search for remedies to the disease, and to bring to play upon the evil 
all the resources of modern science. 




CHAPTER XXVII 

Beautiful Uganda and the Nile 

HEN the traveler in the "dark continent" crosses the great 
East African lake, Victoria Nyanza, and lands at the port 
of Entebbe, he finds himself on the threshold of one of the 
most fertile and beautiful kingdoms in the dark continent, lovely 
Uganda. This was formerly the seat of the most remarkable of the 
African native governments, and is now of as remarkable a colonial 
realm, for the old governmental system has been left unchanged under 
the shadow of the British protectorate. What the British have 
brought are the blessings of peace, of civilized habits, of education 
and Christian teaching; while no burden of foreign rule rests upon 
the neck of the natives, whose old system persists unchanged. 

What is to be found there can best be indicated by a brief descrip- 
tion of this singular civilization in the heart of East Africa. Extend- 
ing westward and northward from the Victoria Nyanza, reaching 
to and embracing the Albert Nyanza, and traversed by the upper 
channel of the Nile, Uganda is an extensive equatorial realm, its 
administrative capital of Entebbe lying nearly on the Equator, yet its 
elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet gives it a partly temperate 
climate, while its vegetation has all the regal luxuriance of the 
tropics. 

Nowhere else in Africa is there a region to be compared in charm 
and attractiveness with Uganda. Different from all others in scenery, 
in vegetation, and in the character and condition of its people, it 
stands alone. In reaching it by sail, we leave the breezy uplands 
lying east of the great lake and enter a garden spot of the tropics. 
Entebbe glows with floral beauty — violet, yellow, purple and crimson 
blooms. Plants and trees of beautiful form and color grow in pro- 
fusion, before the Government House is a stretch of level green lawn, 
and in the distance the great blue lake and purple hills attract th« 



226 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 

eyes, while the soft, cool air seems to belong to climes far removed 
from the tropics. 

Such is Uganda, from end to end a charming garden spot, where 
food grows in abundance with the least quota of labor, and anything 
which can be grown anywhere seems to grow more luxuriantly here. 
The soil is phenomenally rich. Cotton yields an abundant product, 
and its other useful plants include coffee, tea, coca, vanilla, cocoa, 
cinnamon, oranges, lemons, pineapples, rubber, and other native or 
introduced fruits and products. Among these, of course, must be 
named the banana, that most productive food plant of the tropics, 
yielding more nutriment with less care and labor than any other 
vegetable production of the earth. From an agricultural point of 
view the banana groves form the distinguishing feature of Uganda, 
the plant being indispensable to the inhabitants. It supplies him not 
only with a nourishing vegetable pulp and a dessert fruit, but also 
with sweet beer and heady spirits, with soap, plates, dishes, napkins, 
and even materials for foot bridges. 

Passing along the road from Entebbe to Kampala, the native 
capital, one gets an idea of the delightful aspect of the country and 
also of its wealth of useful products. On both sides of the road, 
along its whole length, extends a double avenue of young rubber 
trees, and back of these are broad fields of cotton, beautiful alike when 
in flower or when snowy white with expanded bolls. It is said that 
the cotton grown here, from American upland seed, commands a 
higher price in the Manchester market than the same variety of cotton 
from the United States. 

We cannot do better here than quote a description of some inter- 
esting features of Uganda scenery and life from Sir Harry John- 
ston's "Where Roosevelt Will Hunt," in the "National Geographic 
Magazine" : 

"There is a remarkable similarity about all the landscapes in 
Uganda. There are rolling, green downs rising in places almost into 
the mountains and every valley in between is a marsh. This marsh is 
often concealed by a splendid tropical forest. Sometimes, however, it 
is open to the sky, and the water is hidden from sight by dense- 
growing papyrus 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE as^ 

*The broad native roads make as straight as possible for their 
mark, Hke the roads of the Romans, and, to the tired traveler, seem 
to pick out preferentially the highest and steepest hills, which they 
ascend perpendicularly and without compromise. 

"The road is as broad as an English country road, quite different 
from the ordinary African path (which is barely the breadth of the 
space occupied by men walking in single file). On either side of 
the road the grass grows high, perhaps to heights of seven or eight 
feet, but it is interspersed with gayer-flowering plants and shrubs. 
The road ascends a steep hill through this country of luxuriant grass. 
The hilltop reached and the descent begun, the traveler sees before 
him a broad marsh in the valley below. The descent to this marsh 
is possibly so abrupt that it is deemed wiser to get off the horse or 
mule and leave that beast to slither down sideways. 

^'Looking on either side as the marsh is being crossed, the trav- 
eler will notice first of all the gigantic papyrus, which may be growing 
as high as fifteen feet above the water end interspersed amongst 
papyrus roots are quantities of fern, of amaranth, or "love-lies-a-bleed- 
ing," and the gorgeous red-purple Dissotis flowers, a yellow composite 
like a malformed daisy, and large masses of pink or lavender-colored 
Pentas. There are also sages and mints which smell strongly of 
peppermint, and a rather handsome plant with large white bracts and 
small mauve flowers. 

"In and out of this marsh vegetation flit charming little finches 
of the waxbill type. One of them is particularly beautiful, with a 
body of black, white, and dove color and a crimson back. The next 
ascent of the inevitable hill which succeeds the marsh may lead one 
through a more wooded country, where, among many other flowering 
shrubs, grows a species of mallow (Abutilon) , with blush-pink flowers 
in clusters, like dog-roses in general appearance. 

"The forests and marshes of Uganda abound in remarkable 
monkeys and brilliantly colored birds to a degree not common else- 
where in tropical Africa; but the Kingdom of Uganda, as may be 
imagined from its relatively dense population — a population once 
much thicker than to-day — has been to a great extent denuded of its 
big game. 



\ 



228 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 



" One prominent feattire in the landscape of Entebbe, and in 
fact of much of southern Uganda, are the lofty incense-trees {Pachy- 
lohus). These grow to a great height and are perennially covered 
with a rich green pinnate foliage. The rugose trunk of thick girth 
sweats a whitish gtim, which, scraped off and biu^nt on hot coals, 
produces the smoke of fragrant incense. These trees produce at 
certain seasons of the year enormous quantities of blue-black plums, 
which are the favorite food of gray parrots, violet plantain-eaters, 
and the great blue Corythoeola, besides monkeys and hornbills. 
Wherever, therefore, there is one of these trees growing those who 
live in the neighborhood may enjoy all day long the contemplation 
of the gorgeous plumage of these birds, the antics and cries of the 
parrots, and the wild gambols of the monkeys. " 

Let us now take a glance at the people who inhabit this rich 
realm of Uganda. Landing at Entebbe, we seem to be on another 
planet than the country on the opposite side of the lake. The 
inhabitants are blacks, but blacks of a different type. Here is to be 
seen a polite, well-clad, genial and intelligent people, with a fully 
organized government. They have their king, their parliament 
and a powerful feudal system; with a court, ministers and nobles; 
laws and courts; industry, peace and education. It gives us a new 
idea to learn that more than two hundred thousand of these ebon 
natives are able to read and write. This they owe to the devoted 
labors of a large body of earnest missionaries, who have made 
Christianity the state religion of Uganda. 

Such is the status of the Baganda nation, and its governmental 
system is of old date. The native government which now exists has 
persisted for at least several centuries, and though now under the 
British flag, the old system has not been disturbed, except to coiTcct 
the abuses that had crept in. Safe now from attack by external 
enemies or rebellious outbreaks, all goes on swimmingly. The 
present king, Daudi Cehewa, is a half -grown boy; but, surrounded 
by his officers of state, he presides at the meetings of his council and 
parliament, the prime minister, Sir Apolo Kagwar, being the power 
behind the throne. 

Associated with this political organization, and with the con- 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 229 

trolling authority of the British officials, is a system of missionary 
labor on an unequaled scale. The workers are of different nations 
and different churches, yet are united in their charitable labors, 
working together with none of the discord which has at times attended 
the endeavors of different sects in a single field. At Kampala, the 
native capital, may be seen on different elevations a Protestant 
cathedral, a Catholic mission, and a White Father's monastery, 
each engaged in the same good work in haiTQony. 

Dressed in their long white robes, the Baganda people carry 
their native politeness to an extreme. Sir Hany Johnstone has well 
called them "the Japanese of Africa." Their system of friendly 
salutations approaches the ludicrous in its elaborate expressions of 
regard. Two Bagandas meeting begin to salute each other while 
still yards asunder. 

" How are you?" cries one. 

" Who am I that you should care to know? ' ' asks the second. 

"Humble though I be, yet I have dared to ask," rejoins the 
first. 

" But tell me first how are jow.^" requests the second. 

"The better for the honor you have done me," is the cere- 
monious reply. 

" The honor is mine and I shall treasure it. " 

By this time they have passed each other, and their expressions 
of polite good- will die away as they go on. Of course the dialogue 
may be greatly varied, but the above will suffice for an example. 

Happiness is easily conferred on a Baganda. Simply say to a 
native, "Way wally" ("splendidly well done"), likely enough he 
will fall upon his knees, clasp his hands together and sway them 
from side to side, while his face beams with the gladdest of smiles, 
and he purrs forth his delight as if to say, " You have filled to over- 
flowing my cup of joy. ' ' 

Yet we must not take this as indicating servility. It is simply 
the Baganda idea of good manners. The people are not wanting in 
self-respect, and while yielding to the constituted authorities, do so 
without loss of dignity. Yet it adds an idea of a new type to our 
conceptions of the native African to find a nation of blacks with 



230 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 

exaggerated forms of greeting similar to those prevailing in China 
and Japan. 

And they do not end with verbal signs of good-will, but are 
kindly in nature and extremely hospitable. Sir Harry Johnstone 
tells us that when he traversed their kingdom, he would be met by 
hundreds of people, sent by the local chiefs, and each bearing a 
bunch of bananas. In some instances cows, goats or sheep would 
be sent. They would go so far as to send spies into his camp to find 
out his tastes. In this way they learned that he was very fond of tea 
between five and six o'clock in the afternoon. Then, judging from 
his time of starting what point he would reach at this hour, a resting 
place would be prepared near the road, a table set, and a clean cloth 
spread on it. At the proper time the kettle would be set boiling, 
and when he appeared near by the tea would be poiu-ed out and 
handed to him in a shady arbor. 

In his opinion the Bahima— the aristocracy of Western Uganda 
— may be descended from the people of ancient Egypt or bear some 
affinity to them. Though black in complexion and with negro hair, 
their profile is of the Caucasian t3rpe, and the indication is that a 
people of Hamitic race gradually made their way southward, infused 
their blood into that of the native tribes, and built up a political 
system far in advance of that native to the land. From this infusion 
the people on the west and northwest of the lake gained a refinement 
of manners and a culture far in advance of those on the opposite 
side of the lake. Yet the minghng of races has been so complete, 
and the negro element in it so much in excess, that the modern 
people of Uganda differ from ordinary negroes in appearance only 
by having larger and clearer eyes and slightly paler skins. 

Kampala, the capital of the present king, or Mengo, to use the 
native name of the king's quarter, is a city of seven hills, each subtirb 
of the straggling town being a separate hill, the sides being often so 
steep that they cannot be ascended on horseback. Between these 
hills are marshy bottoms, with streams slowly percolating through 
them. The inhabited parts of the town, which has a population of 
about 70,000, are clean and picturesque, from the king's palace to 
the dwellings of the common people. 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE ?3s 

On each side of the broad roadway are reed fences, behind 
which are yards in which bananas grow and back of these the family 
mansions rise. Everything is kept neat and clean and the hand- 
some trees and abundant vegetation make it a city of gardens. In 
fact, so dense is the growth of bananas, which afford shade and food 
to the people, that the huts of the people are quite concealed. All 
that the traveler sees in approaching the city are the government 
buildings and residences neatly built on one hill; the palace of the 
king and dwellings of his ministers on another; on still others the 
cathedral and other Christian churches. Everything else is lost 
under a broad sea of leaves between which run the wide and straight 
roadways. The whole place is extraordinarily unlike what one 
would look for in an African kingdom and very different from what 
is to be seen elsewhere in that continent. 

An interesting fact in regard to Uganda is that within it lies the 
source of the Nile, one of the noblest and certainly the most famous 
of rivers. One can follow this splendid stream from its headwaters 
vn the Victoria Nyanza to its delta on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
finding it navigable for nearly the whole of its course. The first 
and one of the most interesting parts of the Nile route lies within 
the kingdom of Uganda, and has much within it that merits 
description. 

About two hundred miles from the Victoria Nyanza lies another 
lake, the Albert Nyanza, small in comparison with the former, yet 
anything but a dwarf, as it is more than one hundred miles long and 
correspondingly wide. Between these two lakes, like a silver chain 
of connection, wanders the Nile, now in a broad deep flow, now 
rushing down many miles of rapids, now tumbling sheer downward 
in great cataracts — the Ripon and Murchison Falls. Down this 
splendid river — ^known as the Victoria Nile in this section — we shall 
journey and gaze upon its varied and attractive scenes. 

The whole length of the Nile, from its lake course to its outlet 
in the Mediterranean, is three thousand five hundred miles, and 
those who follow it to its termination have a long journey to make, 
part by foot-paths past the rapids, part by canoe and steamboat on 
the stream, part by rail down its lower course, where for many miles 



232 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 

now runs the northern length of the Cape to Cairo Railway, a dream 
of Cecil Rhodes, which is now in process of being realized. 

The Great Victoria Lake is lifted high in the air, almost on a 
mountain top, for it is higher than the highest mountain in England. 
From this lofty elevation of nearly four thousand feet the Nile flows 
ever downward, now descending slowly, now rapidly, the steepest 
part of its course being that with which we are now concerned. 

The Albert Nyanza lies at a height of two thousand three 
hundred feet above sea level, so that in its first two hundred miles the 
Nile makes more than one-third of its whole descent. This is done in 
its fall and in two long stretches of rapids, one about thirty miles 
long beluw the Ripon Falls, and another of the same length above 
the Murchison Falls. Between and below these rapids it flows 
level and smooth, midway in its course running through another 
large body of water, Lake Chioga, which, like the other two lakes, 
fonns one of the feeders of the Nile. 

With this necessary explanation, we can go on in our path down 
the Victoria Nile, the first part of which must be made in a march 
through the forest to Kakindu, the head of navigation on the Nile; 
the second part by canoes or motorboats down the stream and across 
Lake Chioga; the third part again through the forest past the Mur- 
chison rapids, and then by boat or through the woods along the 
lower stream to the Albert Lake. 

The forest travel of our first stage, from camip to camp, is a 
customary incident in the life of a Central African traveler. He goes 
"on safari" as the Boer goes "on trek." The British officer, on 
an official expedition, comes to think of a ten or twenty days "safari" 
as we would of a journey to Alaska or Hawaii. Instead of making 
the wearisome journey ourselves, let us follow in the footsteps of a 
traveler who gives us a graphic and picturesque description of the 
route. Here is the experience of Winston Churchill, in his forest trip 
down the stream. After taking a long and lingering look at Ripon 
Falls he committed himself to the forest depths. The porters had 
already been long on the road with their burdens and he thus describes 
the route by which he followed them : 

" The native path struck northeast from the Nile, and led into a 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 233 

hilly and densely wooded region. The elephant grass on each side of 
the track rose fifteen feet high. In the valleys great trees grew and 
arched above our heads, laced and twined together with curtains of 
flowering creepers. Here and there a glade opened to the right or 
left, and patches of vivid sunlight splashed into the gloom. Around 
the crossings of little streams butterflies danced in brilliant ballets. 
Many kinds of birds flew about the trees. The jungle was haunted 
by game — utterly lost in its dense entanglements. 

" Our first m.arch was about fourteen miles, and as we had not 
started till the hot hours of the day were upon us, it was enough and 
to spare so far as I was concerned. Up hill and down hill wandered 
our path, now plunged in the twilight of a forest valley, now winding 
up the side of a scorched hill, and I had for some time been hoping 
to see the camp round every corner, when at last we reached it. It 
consisted of two rows of green tents and a large 'banda, ' or rest-house, 
as big as a large barn in England, standing in a nice, trim clearing. 
These 'bandas' are a great feature of African travel; and the dutiful 
chief through whose territory we are passing had taken pains to make 
them on the most elaborate scale. He was not long in making his ap- 
pearance with presents of various kinds. A lanky, black-faced sheep, 
with a fat tail as big as a pum.pkin, was dragged forward, bleating, 
by two retainers. Others brought live hens and earthenware jars of 
mxilk and baskets of little round eggs. The chief was a tall, intelli- 
gent-looking man, with the winning smile and attractive manners 
characteristic of the country, and made his salutations with a fine air 
of dignity and friendship. 

" The house he had prepared for us was built of bamboo frame- 
work, supported upon a central row of Y-shaped tree stems, with a 
high-pitched roof heavily thatched with elephant-grass, and walls of 
wattled reeds. The floors of African 'bandas ' when newly made are 
beautifully smooth and clean, and strewn with fresh green rushes ; the 
interior is often cunningly divided into various apartments, and the 
main building is connected with kitchens and offices of the same 
unsubstantial texture by veranda-shaded passages. In fact, they 
prove a high degree of social knowledge and taste in the natives, who 
make them with almost incredible rapidity from the vegetation of the 

H 



?34 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 



surrounding jungle; and the sensation of entering one of these lofty, 
dim, cool, and spacious interiors, and sinking into the soft rush-bed 
of the floor, with something to drink which is, at any rate, not tepid, 
well repays the glaring severities of a march under an Equatorial sun. 
The 'banda, ' however, is a luxury of which the traveler should be- 
ware, for if it has stood for more than a week it becomes the home of 
innumerable insects, many of approved malevolence and venom, and 
spirillum fever is almost invariably caught from sleeping in old 
shelters or on disused camping-grounds." 

Thus on and on the traveler goes, through the forest shades, 
and out of sight and hearing of the Nile, till at length, after a three 
days' tramp, the latter part of which is through a native settlement, 
with its crop of bananas and other plants, the Nile again appears, a 
glowing breadth of deep, clear water, nearly a third of a mile wide, 
and flowing calmly onward, free from the turmoil of the rapids 
through which it has tossed and tumbled for the first forty miles of 

its course. 

But, without following the Nile step by step throughout its 
course, let us make a leap forward to its greatest cataract, the Mur- 
chison Falls. On leaving Lake Chioga, a body of water fifty miles 
long and eleven miles wide, it spreads to a broad stream of more than 
a mile in width, flowing between walls of solid pap3^us and dotted 
with floating islands of plant formation. After a considerable length 
of level stream Y/e reach Karuma Falls and the rapids again set in, 
ending, about forty miles further down, in the great cataract above 
mentioned. 

If we seek it through the jungle-like Hoima forest, it is to find 
ourselves in such a wilderness of vegetation as is seldom seen. The 
forests of Uganda in general are, for miagnificence of tree growth, for 
varied form and color, for profusion of life, for the vast scale on which 
nature's processes work, almost unequalled; and the fecundity of 
animal life is astonishing. Here are birds as bright as butterflies; 
butterflies as big as birds. The air hums with flying creatures, the 
earth fairly crawls with creeping life. Through it passes the telegraph 
wire running north to Gondokoro, the very poles of which break into 
bud. In the forest itself huge trees jostle each other for room to live, 



BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 235 

lower plants throng the soil, and the trees are fettered together with 
a thick tangle of twining parasites, which at intervals burst into a sea 
of bright blossoms. 

But we must hurry on to the falls themselves, the most remark^ 
able in the whole course of the Nile. The cataracts begin many miles 
above, the river hurrying forward in foam down a continuous stair- 
way inclosed by rocky walls. It is still, however, a broad flood, but, 
about two miles above Fajao, these walls suddenly contract until they 
are less than six yards apart, and through this narrow opening the 
whole great stream shoots like water from the nozzle of a hose, pour- 
ing in a single jet and with a far-reaching roar down an abyss one 
himdred and sixty feet in depth. 

On seeing the great size of the river below the falls it is difficult 
to believe that this vast volume of water comes through that single 
spout. On climbing to the summit of the rock, through clouds of 
spray and a thunder of sound, the observer can walk within an inch of 
the edge, and lying down can look over into the torment of foam 
below. It seems as if the rock must have been worn away to a great 
extent below, for otherwise it seems impossible for so much water to 
pass through so narrow a space. 

The Nile below the falls swarms with crocodiles, and farther 
down are herds of hippopotami, so that the stream throbs with life. 
The crocodiles haunt this spot on the lookout for the dead fish and 
animals carried over by the water, even the great hippos from the 
upper river being often caught and hurled down the watery cliff. So 
numerous are the saurians that when alarmed by a rifle shot hun- 
dreds of them may be seen rushing from the banks into the Nile, the 
water of which they churn into milk-white foam. 

From the splendid cataract we have described the river flows 
sluggishly onward, becoming so slow at length that no current is 
discernible, and after a course of about twenty miles glides gently into 
another large body of water, the Albert Nyanza, above spoken of. 
It does not cross this lake, but joins it near its northeast corner, 
and flows out again on the north, after a short journey within its 
confines. At the lake it ends its career as the Victoria Nile and takes 
the Arab name of Bahr-el-Jebel. Further down, after being joined 



^36 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA AND THE NILE 

by some other streams, it becomes known as the White Nile, and at 
Khartum is swollen by the waters of the Blue Nile, flowing west 
from the hills of Abyssinia. From this point onward move the 
united streams, to reach, after a long desert journey, their final goal 
in the ample bosom of the Mediterranean. 




CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Successful End of the African Hunt 

AMPALA, the capital of Daudi Gehewa, the boy king of 
Uganda, Hes about twenty-four miles from Entebbe, the port 
of the lake traffic and the seat of British authority in that 
part of midland Africa. A protectorate Uganda is called. This is 
to cater to the susceptibility of the partly civilized natives. It is w^ise 
to let such a people fancy that they are an independent nation, but the 
gloved hand of British authority has iron in its grasp and the African 
ruler is only a useful puppet to be cajoled and played with by the actual 
rulers. 

In this city of Kampala Colonel Roosevelt found himself after his 
long hunting career ; resting let us say, but it was a Rooseveltian rest. 
Here is a record of one day, December 22, of our hunter's life in the 
Uganda capital. The morning began with an antelope hunt on the 
surrounding plain. This was only an appetizer for the day's work. 
On his return to the verdant, leaf-shrouded town he made a call on 
Mother Paul, the American superior of the convent, and had a long 
interview with her. On leaving he visited the Catholic mission; fol- 
lowing this up by taking part in the ceremony of dedicating a wing 
recently added to the Church Mission Society hospital. This done, 
he finished the morning's work by taking lunch with Bishop Hanlon. 
This series of performances was followed in the afternoon by a recep- 
tion of the King of Uganda, who paid a visit of ceremony to the dis- 
tinguished visitor then honoring his capital by his presence. Subse- 
quently, in company with King Daudi, he became the guest of honor 
at a dinner given by Mr. F. A. Knowles, the British sub-commissioner, 
to the African monarch and the American ex-President. 

Evidently Mr. Roosevelt was losing no time. He had now reached 
the climax of his African career, and was soon to turn his back on 
the hunter's paradise in which he had lived for months and begin his 

(337) 



fl38 SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 

journey back to civilization by way of the famous Nile, long one of 
the greatest of geographical mysteries but now known throughout its 
full extent from Ripon Falls to the Delta. Its discovery is one of 
the great triumphs of modern exploration. Colonel Roosevelt had 
reached Uganda after a December hunt with Lord Delamere at Njoro, 
which event brought to an end his hunting experience in British 
East Africa. This had been a long one, extending over nearly eight 
months, and had afforded him an opportunity to cope with nearly all 
the great game of the earth which remained after his American ex- 
periences in the hunting field. We must except in this the Bengal 
tiger and the Polar bear, animals worthy of his prowess, with which 
he will perhaps make acquaintance in coming years. That the love 
of hunting and of facing danger in the open was the main incentive 
to the African outing of our ex-President no one will doubt, but it was 
made conducive to science in supplying the Smithsonian and National 
museums with splendid specimens of all the great and nearly all the 
small African mammals, greatly adding to the value of their zoological 
collections. 

Completing this long hunt by mid-December, the embrowned 
adventurer took the steamer at Port Florence for Uganda. Of the 
character of this steamer and its equipment for the comfort of its 
passengers we have spoken on a preceding page, and need but say 
here that Mr. Roosevelt found as civilized appointments in this pioneer 
craft in the center of East Africa as he could have found in the floating 
palaces of one of our American lakes. That he enjoyed the trip across 
this splendid inland sea, with its cool climate, its fine scenery, its 
beautiful islands, goes without saying. Through the journey from Port 
Florence to Entebbe presents but a partial glimpse of the lake and its 
surroundings, it is an illuminating one, and Roosevelt, with his warm 
love of nature in her every mood, enjoyed it with his usual outspoken 
zest. 

As for Uganda — beautiful Uganda, as it is commonly termed — 
an anchorite could scarce fail to view it with enthusiasm, and a nature 
lover like Theodore Roosevelt was sure to greet it with warm expres- 
sions of delight. Entebbe presented itself to him with a glow of floral 
beauty, the native adornment of that tropic realm to which winter 



I 



SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 239 

never comes, and he especially admired the charming outlook from the 
Government House, with its smooth, green lawn, the beautiful trees 
which shaded it, the gleaming face of the sun-kissed lake in the near 
distance and the stately setting of the purple hills afar. And this in 
a clime which, with its soft, cool air, seemed to belong to summer 
lands far removed from the region of the equator. 

After a brief stay in Entebbe as the guest of the Governor of 
Uganda, he set out on a motor trip to the Uganda capital. No one 
could follow the high road from Entebbe to Kampala without feeling 
himself in a bath of beauty, in which the pervading green was enlivened 
by blooms of all the colors of the rainbow and in the rich soil of which 
grew every variety of tropical fruits, with others introduced from the 
temperate zone and familiar to their new visitor. 

The American visitors viewed Kampala with the same enthusiastic 
approval with which they had greeted all the Uganda scenes. As for 
the city itself, one scarcely discovers it even when in its center, the 
huts of the natives being so environed with clustering banana trees as 
to be scarcely visible. But beyond this sea of leaves rise the several 
hills on the slopes of which much of the city lies, one showing on its 
summit the king's palace, a second the buildings of the English resident 
officials, a third crowned with the Christian churches, etc. We do not 
know if Roosevelt ejaculated "Bully for you!" on observing the scene 
spread before him, but if he did it would have been characteristic. 

Colonel Roosevelt had not sought King Daudi's capital as a haven 
of rest. He has the faculty of never resting while there is anything 
that seems to him worth doing or worth learning, and the account 
above given of one day's activity of his stay in that city will show that 
he did not come there with the hope of basking in inglorious ease. To 
up and be doing is his native motto and one which he rarely foregoes.' 

In the six or seven weeks of his projected stay in Uganda he did 
not propose that time should hang heavy on his hands. His months 
of hunting in British East Africa had not surfeited him. Uganda 
had its animals also, its broad domains over which wild beasts wander 
in multitudes, and there was always the possibility of bringing down 
some species new to his career, possibly of finding some animal new 
to science, a mate for the okapi found a few years before in the section 
of Africa in which he now was. 



240 SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 

At any rate Roosevelt and his followers were soon up and doing, 
throwing off the soft blandishments of the Kampala type of civilization 
and going on safari into the wilderness in search of something new 
and strange. He was especially desirous of getting some specimens 
of the white rhinoceros which he had sought for, as stated, in Sotik, 
and in this effort it will suffice to say that he was here abundantly 
successful. 

In this American invasion of Uganda there was one thing to be 
avoided, the subtle assaults of the fevers and other enervating afflic- 
tions to which the visitor to the tropics is exposed. Especially was it 
needful to be on guard against one of these epidemics, that fatal sleep- 
ing sickness which wathin a few years had laid twenty thousand of the 
Uganda natives in the grave and was afoot for new victims who should 
come within reach of the death-dealing tsetse fly. 

When Mr. Roosevelt set out for Africa at the close of his presi- 
dential career many predictions were made that he would never return 
alive. Some affirmed that the sleeping sickness would surely claim 
him as a victim, others that he would fall before those nerve-racking 
tropical fevers which few explorers had escaped and by which many 
had been laid low. Still others of this weeping willow band of mourn- 
ers were confident that some of the ravening beasts of Africa's clime, 
the maned lion, the horned rhino, the trunked elephant, the mailed 
crocodile, would with weight of paw, thrust of horn or snap of jaw 
close the career of America's favorite son. 

These dismal forebodings were not without warrant. They were 
based on the experience of many earlier travelers. But they little 
disturbed the Roosevelt serenity and fortunately none of them were 
realized. One rumor, indeed, came from Africa that he had been 
killed, but like most such rumors it proved unbased. He passed 
unscathed through the terrors of field and fever, and finally reached 
the banks of the Nile in a condition of rugged health, such as few of his 
predecessors had enjoyed. But this was largely due to the fact that 
before his advent civilization had tamed that region of the tropics and 
he was saved from the enervating and disheartening experiences of 
earlier travelers, while every precaution to insure his safety was taken. 
Only for the presence of such trained hunters as Selous and Cunning- 
hame there might have been a different story to tell. 




ELEPHANT AND RHINOCEROS IN BATTLE 

Tloth thesG animals wore found in the course of Roosevelt's travels, and both helong to the class called 
Pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals. The tusks of the one and horn of the other are dangerous wtapons. 




Copyright, 1009, dy Underwood £ Underwood 

A HUGE HIPPOPOTAMUS SHOT IN DEEP WATER 

Ex-President Roosevelt was attacked by twenty of these monsters while in a small rowboat on Lake 
Naivasha. He succeeded in killing two and driving the rest away. 




ROOSEVELT SURPRISED BY A GIANT HIPPO. 
3fs enormous brute, the bippopotamus. is amphibious, equally at home. In the water as on 
land. His thiclc hide shields him from fatal wounds unless delivered by a high-power rifle, while 
bis great strength makes him a terrific antagonist 



This 



SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 241 

It is not our purpose to describe the hunting adventures of the 
R90sevelt party in Uganda, that country which has been described as 
"the wildest and most beautiful, perhaps the most dangerous, and 
certainly the most interesting of those explored." These adventures 
were of the type of those already described. They consisted in wan- 
dering through the wilds, the constant crack of the rifle, the fall of 
fresh victims of the hunter's skill. To detail them would be but a 
repetition of the story of the past chapters, and of these hunting 
exploits "by flood and fell" our readers have already had a sufficiency. 
We shall therefore pass over these experiences and pass at once from 
Kampala to where the waters of the great lake rush down the slope of 
Ripon Falls to give birth to the noble Nile. Down that historic stream 
our journey now leads. 

To go "on safari" down the Nile was an experience very different 
from that which the expedition had yet passed through. It had hith- 
erto enjoyed the cool air of a high plateau, high even at the Victoria 
Nyanza, which is nearly four thousand feet above sea level. Before 
reaching the Albert Nyanza, about two hundred miles distant, more 
than one-third of its height had disappeared and our travelers found 
themselves approaching the steaming and enervating temperature of 
the true tropics. 

On went the long caravan, the colored porters gay and lively in 
the early hours of the day, but with sober mien and dragging steps 
as hot noontide burned above them. Native paths led through the 
dense woodland, now along a level stretch, now up or down hill, and 
whites and blacks alike were glad enough to reach the "bandas," or 
rest houses, which awaited them at intervals along the trail, built by 
the authorities for the convenience of the growing tide of travel. 

Day after day this was repeated; an early start, a long tramp, a 
rest during the hot hours of the day, with food provided by the chiefs 
of the country traversed and duly paid for by the travelers. Of course 
the Rooseveltians did not fail to turn aside to view the remarkable 
Murchison Falls, in which the whole flood of the Nile forces itself 
through an aperture less than twenty feet wide, plunging one hundred 
and sixty feet downward with a roar loud enough to awake the echoes 
miles away. 

16 



242 SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 

The Albert Nyanza, a lake much smaller than the Victoria, lies in 
the course of the Nile, but cannot be said to be traversed by it. On the 
contrary the river enters and leaves it at its northern corner, passing 
through only a few miles of its area, yet doubtless gaining from it 
important additions to its flood. Other additions come from the Albert 
Edward Nyanza, which receives the drainage of the Ruwenzori Moun- 
tains and is connected with the Albert Nyanza by the Semliki River. 
It is to these three central African lakes that the Nile owes the great 
volume of its flood, gaining the abundant waters which for thousands 
of years have brought to the land of Egypt perennial fertility. 

After leaving the Albert Nyanza, the next point of interest is the 
former Arab slave-station of Gondokoro, more than two hundred 
miles to the north. Though this distance may be traversed by boat, 
the Roosevelt party made its way by land, journeying through a very 
difficult stretch of country, a wilderness so forbidding to the white 
men that even the enterprising telegraph companies have not yet ven- 
tured to carry their wires through it, all communication being made 
by native runners. But it presented excellent opportunities for hunt- 
ing, and on reaching Gondokoro on February 17th the adventurers 
declared that the past ten days had been one of the most enjoyable parts 
of their entire African trip. Certainly they looked it, to judge from 
the healthy aspect of the whole party. 

Gondokoro lies in the territory of the Bari tribe of the Soudanese 
negroes, on the east bank of the Nile, the west bank at this point being 
in the most northerly stretch of the territory of the Congo Free State. 
Long ago the Arabs made it a center of the slave and ivory trade, and 
though the former has been suppressed, the ivory trade is still active, 
a number of ivory merchants making Gondokoro their headquarters. 
Here the steamboats of the Soudan government call once a month, 
carrying- passengers and the mail between this place and Khartum, 
nine hundred miles to the north. 

The entrance of the Roosevelt expedition to this far inland Nile 
station was rudely picturesque, the British and natives alike doing 
their utmost to give a fitting welcome to the travel-hardened wan- 
derers. A party of the Bari tribe, Chief Keriba and his band of native 
musicians at their head, met the Americans sixteen miles south and 



SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 243 

during this final part of the journey gave them all the noisy honor that 
they could get out of their brass instruments and Indian drums. 

Shouts of welcome from natives and citizens hailed the entrance 
of the Americans, awaiting whom on the Bahr-el-Jebel (as the Nile 
is here called) was the launch of General Sir Reginald Wingate, the 
Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, who had sent it for the convenience of 
the coming distinguished traveler. At its mast-head flew the Stars 
and Stripes, and on entering its cabin Colonel Roosevelt was gratified 
to find there a large amount of mail, which had been forwarded to 
await his arrival. After a brief rest, he plunged into his mass of 
correspondence. In the town itself, which, in addition to the ivory 
traders, had a few shops belonging to Greek and Hindu storekeepers, 
a brick house had been set aside for his convenience during his stay in 
that frontier town. 

The journey to Khartum was to be made in the Sirdar's launch, 
but before setting out the party decided on having a final week's hunt- 
ing, and on the i8th three of the party, Roosevelt, Kermit and 
Heller, set out with the purpose of shooting such game as might be 
found along the river banks. The remaining members of the party 
stayed behind to pack the specimens they had recently gathered in their 
Nile journey and pay ofif and dismiss the porters who had so long been 
their faithful companions and helpers. 

The day promised to be one of adventures. Before their start 
word came that a native had fallen into the river and been drowned. 
On learning of this accident Kermit and Mr. Loring dove into the 
river in an effort to recover the body, heedless of the peril from croco- 
diles and from the swift current. Fortunately no harm came to them. 
Meanwhile from Lado, a few miles north of Gondokoro and the 
extreme northeast station of the Congo Free State, the Belgian Com- 
mandant and other officials called on the guest of honor and presented 
their congratulations upon the success of his African hunting excur- 
sion, with a request that he should visit their town. 

The shooting expedition also opened with an adventure, the small 
boat in which It set out beginning its record by landing its crew on a 
sand bank. It was soon afloat, however, and, reaching the Congo side 
of the stream, the party began its hunt, its native attendants carrying 



244 SUCCESSFUL END OF THE AFRICAN HUNT 

the American flag, the first seen in the Congo Free State since the 
days of Stanley. As for the Congo natives, they greeted Roosevelt 
with the same names they had given Stanley and seemed to think the 
party similar to that led by the famous explorer. 

The events of this excursion resembled those of former hunting 
trips, its most important prizes being a giant bull eland shot by Roose- 
velt and a bull and a cow brought down by Kermit. They had spent 
from twelve to fourteen hours daily in the chase, and returned to 
Gondokoro on the 26th, looking wonderfully well and in the best of 
spirits. They brought with them the skins and skeletons of the 
elands, the only specimens contributed by the Congo State. 

With this week's shooting Colonel Roosevelt proposed to close his 
hunting experience in Africa unless an opportunity should arise lowe] 
down the Nile to obtain some specimens of rare animals they had so 
far failed to get. From Gondokoro the route lay down the Nile to 
Khartum, nearly a thousand miles to the north. At this outpost cf 
Egyptian civilization in the Soudan he expected to meet Mis. Roose- 
velt and their daughter, Ethel, who had left New York on February 
15th, hoping to reach Khartum and meet the returning traveler by 
the 14th of March. 

It is fitting here to state succinctly the general results of the expe- 
dition. In all about five hundred specimens of large mammals were 
obtained, including the following of special interest: . 

Seventeen lions, eleven elephants, ten buffaloes, ten black rhinoc- 
eroses, nine white rhinoceroses, nine hippopotami, nine giraffes, three 
leopards, seven cheetahs, three giant elands, three sables, one sita- 
tunga and two bongos. 

From the point of scientific importance, which has been kept 
throughout in view, the most highly-prized game may be rated as fol- 
lows: First, the giant elands, the first complete specimens of which 
family were now being taken from the country; second, the white 
rhinoceros; third, the bongos, the first to be stalked and killed by a 
white man, and, fourth, the sitatunga, a rare species of antelope. 

The naturalists secured a remarkable collection, including many 
thousands of birds and small mammals, the whole enbracing more 
than thirteen thousand specimens. The results in this line were 
most gratifying, and science was enriched by several new species. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

The Great Game Animals of Africa 

The Elephant, — First of all in point of interest comes the 
elephant, the giant pachyderm, as his family is known to 
science. Attaining the height of twelve feet at the shoulders 
and a length of eighteen or nineteen feet, it is indeed an impressive 
sight to meet even a single elephant in his native forest. His strength 
is enormous, and the spectacle of whole trees torn up by the roots and 
broken off close to the ground as a result of a playful moment is an 
awe-inspiring one. 

The African elephant differs in some respects from the Asiatic 
species more commonly seen. His skin is black and nearly destitute 
of hair and the tail is short with a tufted end. The head is rounder, 
forehead more convex and ears much larger than in the Asiatic 
elephant. The latter are very flat, reaching to the legs, and over- 
lapping each other on the top of the neck. Each foot has five toes. 
The tusks are arched, between eight and nine feet long and weighing 
about one hundred pounds. The female is upwards of eight feet high 
and usually provided wnth tusks about four feet long. 

The weight of a full-grown bull elephant is really immense; it 
may be imagined how wonderfully powerful are the limbs which can 
carry that weight over the ground at a speed nearly equal to that of 
a horse. 

But nature has taken very good care that these limbs shall not 
be too weak for their task. Indeed, they are like so many pillars, so 
massively are they formed, and so firmly planted upon the ground. 
And, if you take notice, the hind legs have not the peculiar *'knee-" 
joint, as it is often 1)Ut wrongly called, which we see in the horse, 
and which would take away very much from the strength of those 
limbs. 

Now, I dare say you will be rather surprised when I tell you 

(245) 



246 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 



that the elephant, large and heavy though he is, can yet move over 
the ground, and even through the thick forest, with so silent a tread 
that you would be quite unable to hear his footfall, even though you 
might be standing close beside him. Indeed, hunters who have shot 
many an elephant tell us that the only way in which one can hear 
the animal moving is by listening for the sound caused by the water 




PURSUIT OF THE WILD HOG 



contained in his stomach, which makes a peculiar "swishing" sound 
as he walks along. 

Now, how is this? Here is an immense animal, standing eleven 
or twelve feet in height, and weighing two or three tons, and yet 
walking with the silent and stealthy tread of a cat! Are his feet 
furnished with soft cushions upon the soles, like those of the lion or 
the tiger? Yes and no, their structure being, however, perfectly 
different, and yet equally wonderful. 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 247 

If you could look carefully at the foot of an elephant, you would 
see that it is encased in a kind of hoof, which protects it from injury 
upon the ground. But this hoof has other purposes as well, for it 
must serve to break the shock of the footfall, which must of course 
result from every step of so heavy a body. And consequently it is 
formed of a vast number of elastic horny plates and india-rubber-like 
pads, so that, when the enormous animal treads, its footsteps are nearly 
as noiseless as those of a cat. 

If you have ever ridden upon an elephant, you must have noticed 
two things. Ais the animal moves the legs of one side nearly together, 
the body sways from side to side at each double step. Also, though 
the elephant is so heavy, and the legs so apparently clumsy, the step 
is so soft, that the rider not only does not hear it, but actually feels 
no jar as the foot touches the ground. 

This gentle movement is partly due to the elastic plates, which 
act something like our own steel carriage-springs, but in a different 
direction, and partly to the pads, which act just like the india-rubber 
tires of a bicycle-wheel. 

Now, if we had never seen an elephant, or a picture of one, and 
had not even heard the animal described to us, we might very well 
wonder how so large and bulky an animal, with a neck so short that the 
mouth could not reach within several feet of the ground, could possibly 
supply itself with food and drink. If we had been asked to invent a 
way in which this could be done, we should certainly have failed, for, 
clever as man is, such a task would be quite beyond his powers. 

But nature found no difficulty in doing so, for she modified the 
snout and the upper lip into a long trunk, or proboscis, which is so 
wonderfully useful that it can be employed for a great variety of 
purposes. As one writer has very well said, with its trunk the elephant 
can uproot or shake trees, Hft a cannon, or pick up a pin ; by its aid 
it can carry both food and water to the mouth, while, upon a hot day, 
it can turn the same organ into a shower-bath, and sprinkle its body 
with cool and refreshing water. 

A wonderful organ, indeed, must be the trunk, which can fulfil 
so many purposes, and one gifted as much with a delicate sense of 
touch as with great and almost giant strength. And this is in very 



248 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 



truth the case, for the tip of the proboscis is as sensitive as our own 
fingers, and is, moreover, furnished with two small projections which 
act in very much the same manner as a finger and thumb. 

So powerful are the muscles of the trunk that an elephant can 
pick up a large and heavy log, raise it high in the air, and hurl it with 
great force to the ground, although its weight might be so great that 
a strong man could hardly move it. 

Through the whole length of the trunk run the nostrils, and it is 




ELEPHANT HUNTING IN THE FOREST 

by the aid of these that the elephant is able to drink. When an 
elephant feels thirsty, he plunges the end of his trunk into the water, 
and draws in his breath until the nostrils are filled, just in the same 
manner, in fact, as a syringe is charged by drawing out the handle. 
Then the trunk is curled up, the tip placed in the mouth, and the 
water forced down the throat, the process being repeated as often as 
necessary. 

Food is taken in much the same manor, excepting of course, 
that the nostrils are not employed. Small articles, such as fruit, 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 249 

leaves, and so on, are picked up by the little finger and thumb-like 
projections about which I told you, while larger objects are grasped 
by the trunk itself. I dare say that you have seen an elephant pick 
up and eat a biscuit ; and, if so, you will very well remember the man- 
ner in which the trunk carried food to the mouth. 

So useful, indeed, is the trunk, that if deprived of its aid, even 
for a few days only, the elephant would certainly die. His neck is 
so short that he could obtain neither food or drink, for he could not 
bend his head to the ground and so procure water, while his long 
tusks would prevent him from even plucking the leaves which might 
grow within his reach. 

I dare say you will wonder why it is that the neck should be so 
short and stout. The fact is, that the head, with the teeth and tht; 
enormous tusks, is so immensely heavy, that the neck must be very 
large in order to contain the powerful muscles which are needed to 
sustain it. This accounts for its great size, and we may also see with 
equal ease, the reason for its shortness by trying a single experiment. 
Mud-Bathers — Elephants. — Nearly every tropical animal, 
including the tiger, bathes either in water or in mud. Perhaps the 
best-known mud-bathers are the wild boar, the water-buffalo, and the 
elephant. The latter has an immense advantage over all other 
animals, in the use of its trunk for dressing wounds. It is at once a 
syringe, a powdering-puff and a hand. Water, mud, and dust are 
the main "applications" used, though it sometimes covers a sun- 
scorched back with grass or leaves. ''Wounded elephants," writes 
an African explorer, "have marvelous power of recovery when in their 
wild state, although they have no gifts of surgical knowledge, their 
simple system being confined to plastering their wounds with mud, or 
blowing dust upon the surface. Dust and mud comprise the entire 
pharmacopoeia of the elephant, and this is applied upon the most 
trivial as well as upon the most serious occasions. I have seen them 
when in a tank plaster up a bullet wound with mud taken from the 
bottom." 

Once killed the elephant is of no use except for the ivory of his 
tusks. The natives and some Europeans, however, esteem elephant 
steak and baked elephant's feet great luxuries. The tusk= are em- 



250 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 



bedded in massive sockets spreading over the greater portion of the 
face, and the operation of hewing them out with an axe usually occu- 
pies several hours. A female with tusks is an African oddity unknown 
in India. 

The Rhinoceros. — The elephant, as the largest animal known, 
is entitled to first consideration, but the rhinoceros is a worthy rival 
from z sportsman's viewpoint. Upwards of six feet high at the 




HEAD OF A RHINOCEROS 



shoulders and about thirteen feet in extreme length, it is a ridiculous, 
yet awe-inspiring, sight to watch one charging along with short stubby 
tail angrily erect, the big ungainly body supported on short and seem- 
ingly inadequate legs. The head is large and long with small eyes 
placed well on the side. Their sight is very poor and this fact has 
saved many a man's life who had the presence of mind to lie down 
when facing a charge. However, their scent is so keen that it nearly 
compensates for the poor eyesight. The rhinoceros is bad tempered 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 251 

and resentful of interference. He usually charges a man on sight, 
and his enormous weight and strength, coupled with the two horns 
on his snout, render him one of the most dangerous species of African 
game. The muzzle is long and somewhat flat and from this the two 
horns project, placed one behind the other and varying in length. 
Several men have been tossed on these deadly horns and by some 
miracle lived to tell the tale. All were badly crippled. The animal 
rarely fails to kill and mangle beyond recognition any hunter who 
either through an accident or nervousness misses his shot. There 
is a well known and authentic story of one terrible attack by a rhino. 
While a gang of twenty-one slaves was being taken down to the coast 
chained neck to neck, a big rhino broke out of the bush and impaled the 
center man on his horn, breaking the necks of all the others by the 
suddenness of the shock. 

The rhinoceros is difficult to kill, as soft-nose bullets merely 
splash out on its thick, naked hide. Here again the big .450 
express rifle with its steel- jacketed bullets is invaluable. The 
brownish-black skin, rugged but without folds, makes a good target, 
and a shot either just behind the foreshoulder or in the curve 
between the neck and shoulder is apt to prove fatal. 

When pursued, the animal dashes through the forest with 
tremendous speed, and marks its path by the dead trees which it 
brings to the ground, and the broken boughs which lij scattered 
in every direction. The havoc made by a cannon shot in passing 
through the timbers of a line-of -battle ship may give some idea of the 
kind of destruction accomplished by the rhinoceros in its headl ng 
course. It is not easily overtaken ; nor is it easily surprised, for it is 
protected, as we have said, by its keenness of scent and hearing. It 
can discern the approach of an enemy from a considerable distance; 
and it is well for it that these senses are so powerful, inasmuch as, 
owing to the smallness and deep-set position of its eyes, its range of 
vision is exceedingly limited. It is said that it is also assisted by the 
warnings of a bird, the Buphaga Ajricana which frequently accom- 
panies the rhinoceros, and seems to be animated by a strong feeling 
of attachment for its unwieldy friend, indicating the approach of 
danger by a signal-cry. 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 



Like most of the tropical animals, the rhinoceros rests or slum- 
bers during the day. At nightfall, it proceeds to the nearest lake or 
river to quench its thirst, and, by wallowing in the mud, to cover 
itself with a coat of clay as a protection against insects. Then it 
sallies forth on a foraging expedition, and in the course of the night 
covers a considerable extent of ground. At sunrise it retires again 
to rest, and under the shade of a rock or a tree sleeps through the hot 
hours of the tropical day, either standing erect, or stretched out at 
full length. 




-si, -^ 

A BATTLE BETWEEN A BUFFALO AND A HIPPOPOTAMUS 

The organs of scent of the rhinoceros are very acute, and as the 
creature seems to have a peculiar faculty for detecting the presence 
of human beings, it is necessary for the hunters to use the greatest 
circumspection when they approach it, whether to avoid or to kill, 
as in the one case it may probably be taken with a sudden fit of fury, 
and charge at them, or in the other case, it may take the alarm and 
escape. 

The upper lip is used by the rhinoceros as an instrument to seize 
or hold things fast, it can grasp the herbage on which it feeds, or 



THE GREAT GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA 253 

pick up small fruit from the ground. A tame rhinoceros in the 
Zoological Gardens will take a piece of bun or biscuit from a visi^ 
tor's hand by means of the flexible upper lip. 

The Hippopotamus, — Next among the pachyderm family and 
in the hunter's estimation comes the hippopotamus, the river horse of 
the ancients, though there is hardly any basis for the name save that 
it lives chiefly in or near the water. Not as large as the rhinoceros, 
the hippopotamus stands from four to five feet high at the shoulders 
and is from ten to eleven feet long. 

Hippo shooting is considered good sport. The hunter rarely 
ever secures an easy shot, as the animals are found chiefly in the water 
and ahnost entirely submerged. Further than that, the skin, which is 
pinkish-brown in color, is so hard and thick that a shot must be very 
accurately placed to take effect. The skin is naked, thick, and pene- 
trated by pores v/hich exude or give out a thick, fatty liquid, which 
may perhaps be of utility while in the water. The front part of the 
head is m.assive, and broader than that of any other living quadruped ; 
the nostrils are comparatively sm^all slits, which are closed and water- 
tight duiing the frequent dives beneath the surface of the water; the 
eyes are prom.inent, and placed far back in the head; and the ears are 
so short that they look as if they had been cropped. 

The best tim.e to hunt hippo is at night and the place a " run " or 
path by which they go to water. There are often flattened places on 
the banks where the big ugly brutes come out to roll. The easiest 
and best thing to do is to climb a tree before moonrise near this run 
or rolling place and wait until the hippo's peculiar tooting challenge or 
the noise of the great beast crashing through the forest or pounding 
along the run is heard. This is the best sort of an opportunity to 
get a specim.en, as, if the shooting has to be done from an island or 
from the bank on foot, a charge by the hippo may result very seri- 
ously. Though the enomious ungainly body is carried on very short 
legs, it is capable of considerable speed for a short distance on land 
and of swimming with perfect ease, and not only the rush but an 
attack with the heavy tusks placed on both sides of the big, thick, 
square head is to be feared, 



CHAPTER XXX 

The Giraffe, Buffalo, and Zebra 

The Giraffe. — Passing on in the accepted order we come to the 
Ruminantia family or hoofed quadrupeds which chew the cud. 
The species under this heading are indeed interesting. First 
of all we find that marvelous animal the giraffe. Standing twelve feet 
high at the fore shoulders, his head towers majestically eighteen feet in 
the air, and the short sloping body mounted on legs seven feet long 
seems inadequately proportioned to the long tapering neck with its 




THE GIRAFFE 
With difficulty it can reach the ground with its lips 

slender thirty-four inch head. This head is peculiar in itself. It is 
narrow and sloping, covered with a hairy skin and terminating in a 
tuft of black hair. The upper lip is entire and there is no muzzle. 
The ears are large and pure white in color. The tongue is very long, 
pointed and flexible. It may be well to explain here why the giraffe 
possesses the peculiarities which distinguish him from all other 
animals. His height, he is taller than any other living being that man 

(aS4) 



THE GIRAFFE, BUFFALO, AND ZEBRA 



255 



has knowledge of, is given to him in order that he may be able to reach 
up into the trees for the leaves which form his principal food. His 
peculiar tongue is so delicate that the giraffe is able to pluck a single 
blade of grass. The tongue can not only be lengthened or shortened 
at will, but can also be widened and contracted. In spite of the huge 
size of the animal, it can pass its tongue into a tube which would 
scarcely admit of an ordinary lead pencil. When vve consider the 




A HUNTERS PARADISE 



i^reat height of the giraffe's head and that it sometimes feeds on grass, 
it may easily be imagined that it is difficult and awkward for it to 
reach the ground. It accomplishes the feat, however, by spreading 
its front legs to their utmost extent and making full use of its long 
neck and flexible tongue above referred to. The giraffe being naturally 
defenseless, is compelled to depend on speed to enable him to escape 



^56 THE GIRAFFE, BUFFALO, AND ZEBRA 

an enemy. The long legs provide him with this, and one of the big 
animals at full speed is too fast for any beast in the forest or on the 
plains of Africa. The sportsman's only hope is to kill or injure badly 
with the first shot, for once frightened they are away like an express 
train. It takes only a few steps for them to acquire tremendous speed, 
and the little African ponies used as saddle horses are soon left far 
in the rear. It must not be imagined that man is the sole enemy of the 
giraffe. Lions and leopards kill great numbers of them, and it is to 
avoid such attacks that they are often seen running with their peculiar 
rocking, ugly gait across the plains at a tremendous pace. Their 
height and the odd deep sienna color of the body, covered with rust- 
colored spots darker in the center, makes the giraffe very conspicuous 
when in the open and the object of continual stalking by the beasts of 
prey. This naturally renders them so extremely wary and difficult 
shooting that the bagging of a giraffe is considered a big day's work. 
Nature has provided them with a means of protection little understood. 
When in the forest where the giraffe naturally belongs, his gaudy 
coloring blends so thoroughly with the tropical foliage that it is hard 
to distinguish one from a tree or a tree from a giraffe. Even the 
natives are unable to distinguish them at any distance in the forest. 
When on the run, as might be expected, the animal is very odd look- 
ing. It proceeds by a series of awkward bounds, while the tail is 
swung from . side to side and the long neck rocks to and fro as if it 
were loose in its socket. , 

The Swiftness of the Giraffe. — A native came one day in 
great haste to inform his master, a great traveler, that he had seen 
in the neighborhood a giraffe browsing upon the limbs of a mimosa 
tree. "Full of joy, I instantly leaped upon one of my horses, and made 
my servant mount another, and, followed by my dogs, I galloped 
towards the mimosa indicated, but the giraffe was no longer there. We 
saw him crossing the plain on the western side, and we spurred on to 
overtake him. He was trotting along lightly, without, however, 
exerting himself unduly. We pressed the chase, and from time tc 
time fired several shots after him; but imperceptibly he gained so 
much upon us, that after following him for three hours, we were 
forced to stop, our horses being quite blown, and we lost sight of 
Wm ** Here is a graphic picture of a giraffe hunt • 




Copyright, 1909, ty Underwood d Underwood 
THE GIANT MAN-EATING CROCODILE OF CENTRAL AFRICA 
•The crocodile was caught asleep ashore and nailed <3owp with a high-power Winchester rifle." 




I 



COL. ROOSEVELT SHOOTING A LIOX 

Once wounded by a hunter the lion of Central Africa becomes a raging demon of destruction. 
One blow from its paw crushes the body of its victim, one snap of its jaws mangles beyond recog- 
nition. In spite of the dangers of this hunt Theodore Roosevelt brought down several of these 
monarchs of the jungle. 




Copyright, 1909, ty Underwood tfi Underwood 

REWARD OF A ZEBRA SHOOT. 

Zebras are as common as deer in the jungle. Ex-President Roosevelt added them to his collection for the 

Smithsonian Institution. 




AN ELEPHANT HUNT 
A late which sometimes overtakes the hunter. 



THE GIRAFFE, BUFFALO, AND ZEBRA 2^7 

"Our stealthy approach," says the writer, "was opposed by 
an ill-tempered rhinoceros, which, with her ugly calf, stood directly 
in the path; and the twinkling of her bright little eyes, accompanied 
by a restless rolling of the body, giving earnest of her intention to 
charge. A discharge of musketry, however, put her to flight, and I 
set spurs to my horse. At the report of the gun and the sudden 
clattering of hoofs, away bounded the giraffes in picturesque confu- 
sion, clearing the ground by a series of froglike hops, and soon leaving 
me far in the rear. Twice were their towering forms concealed from 
view by a park of trees, which we entered almost at the same instant ; 
and twice, in emerging from the labyrinth, did I perceive them tilting 
over a hill far in advance. 

"In the course of five minutes the fugitives arrived at a small 
river, the treacherous sands of which receiving their long legs, their 
flight was greatly retarded ; and, after floundering to the opposite side, 
and scrambling to the top of the bank, I perceived that their race was 
run. Patting the steaming neck of my good steed, I urged him again 
to his utmost, and instantly found myself by the side of the herd. The 
stately bull being readily distinguished from the rest by his dark 
chestnut robe and superior stature, I applied the muzzle of my rifle 
behind his dappled shoulder with my right hand, and drew both trig- 
gers. But he still continued to shuffle along, and being afraid of 
losing him, should I dismount, among the extensive mimosa groves 
with which the landscape was now obscured, I sat in my saddle, loading 
and firing behind the elbow; and then placing myself across his path 
until the tears trickled from his full brilliant eyes, his loftly frame 
began to totter, and at the seventeenth discharge from the deadly rifle, 
like a falling minaret bowing his graceful head from the skies, his 
proud form was prostrate in the dust." 

The meat of the giraffe is held in high regard by the natives, who 
cut it in strips and hang it out in the sun to dry. In the state of 
preservation that it acquires it is called bilfoui^. The hide is used for 
making shoes and various other leather articles. The trail or foot- 
print left by the giraffe is a curious one, easily followed. It is shaped 
somewhat like a parallelogram, about eleven inches long, rounded at 
the heel and tapering toward the toe. However, the African jungle 



258 THE GIRAFFE, BUFFALO AND ZEBRA 

is so full of trails of animals of all sorts and it is so difficult to tell 
fresh ones from the old, that hunting is usually dependent on a sight 
of the animals themselves. 

The Buffalo. — Among the wild ruminants of Africa we next 
reach the buffalo. It is only necessary to look once at this ugly brute 
to realize his dangerous possibilities. Of all the African animals, not 
even excepting the uncertain tempered rhino, the buffalo must be 
approached with the gi-eatest caution. A savage brute, he will often 
charge a man on sighting or scenting him, and as his eyes ar . very 
good and his hide so thick that a bullet must be very well placed to 
stop him, the wise hunter sees to it that he is within reach of a tree 
which can be quickly climbed before interfering with even a single 
buffalo. The charge of a herd is simply irresistible and actually car- 
ries all before it. Even small trees offer no opposition, and they go 
through the jungle lilce a traction engine. 

The full grown male stands about five feet six to eight inches 
high at the shoulderc and is upwards of twelve feet in extreme length. 
His whole structure is very powerful, with a short neck and ponderous 
body, deep chested and mounted on short solid legs teniiinating in a 
divided hoof. The back is straight and hunchless and the head is 
short and small in proportion to the animal's bulk. It seems odd that 
the buffalo should be able to attpin such high speed with the short legs 
nature has endowed him with, but one has only to witness one buffalo 
charge to be convinced of his great speed forever after. 

The buffalo's eyes are a very good indication of its character. 
They are small and sinister, overshadowed by rough and ponderous 
dark colored horns, nearly in contact at the base, spreading hori- 
zontally, and turned upwards and inwards at the tips, which measure 
from fojr to five feet between. The hide is bluish pui-ple, black and 
bare with the exception of a few bristles. The muzzle is square and 
moist, shaped likp that of the ox. The female is like the male, but 
smaller. They inhabit the plains and forests of the interior in large 
herds. 

The Zebra. — ^Another African animal of considerable size and 
much interest, alike for its rpeed and its curious coloring, is the zebra. 
It is not a ruminant, like the giraffe and buffalo, and has not a 



THE GIRAFFE, BUFFALO AND ZEBRA 259 

divided hoof like these, its slender legs and small feet terminating 
in a single, solid hoof like that of the horse, of which it is a near 
relative. It is still more closely related to the ass, of the Asiatic 
plains, which it closely resembles in shape and in some other particu- 
lars. It stands about four feet high at the shoulders and is about 
eight feet long, has a high and bony head, with ass-like ears, and a 
blackish tail, tufted at the end. 

In all this it resembles the ass, but differs greatly from it in its 
color scheme. The grotind color of the hair is white, but the whole 
bcdy, except the under side of the belly and the inside of the thighs, 
i? covered with narrow black bands, so that it is alternately striped 
with black and white, presenting an attractive and peculiar appear- 
ance. The mane, which is erect and bushy, is also banded with black 
and white, as are the ears. On the face are brown stripes terminating 
in a bay nose. Another oddity is the bare spot on each of the four 
legs just ab ve the knee. The female zebra is similar but smaller. 

The true zebra inhabits the hilly districts of Southern Africa, and 
is remarkable for its beauty and fierce and untamable n-^ture. It is 
by far the most conspicuous and most beautiful of the horse tribe. 
The stripes which distinguish it from the ordinary asses are remark- 
ably like those of the tiger in their arrangement. Those on its legs 
are horizontal while those of its body are for the most par; vertical. 

Burchell's zebra is another species, differing from the common 
zebra in some particulars. Thus its ears and tail are like those of the 
horse. The quagga, a third species of these ass-like animals, was a 
handsome creature, striped only from head to shoulders. It ha. 
been hunted so destructively that for years past no quagga has been 
seen and it is thought to be extinct. 

There are two game animals of Afri'"'^ of the hog family of which 
we may speak in passing. One of these is th'^ ugly and savage wart- 
hog, a fierce creature armed with long and dangerous tusks. It is 
only when it is cornered, however, that it attacks the hunter. If 
he happens to be thrown from his horse he is in serious danger of 
being torn by the tusks. The wild boar is similar in its habits and 
has long been a favorite object of chase, largely fr'^m the fact of its 
fierceness and that it cannot be himted without peril. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

Graceful African Antelopes 

T T TITHOUT diverging from the species known as Ruminants, 

yy we now come to the division called Antelopes, a subfamily 

chiefly of the old world and nearly all belonging to Africa. 

They differ from cattle in their smaller size, more lithe and graceful 

form, slenderer legs, which are comparatively longer in the shank, and 




THE GNOO 

Resembles the Horse and Buffalo 

(260) 



GRACEIrUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 261 

longer neck with slenderer vertebrae, uplifting the head. The family 
of antelopes shades directly into that of the sheep and goats, being 
separated from them by no technical characteristic, but the horns 
usually differ. Upwards of fifty African species have been described, 
but we shall not attempt to deal with very rare species, but shall confine 
ourselves to those well known and commonly met with. No agree- 
ment has been reached by naturalists upon the different divisions of the 
group. The antelopes include the smallest and most delicate gazelles, 
steinboks and springboks, the bulky eland and hartebeest, as well as 
the misshapen gnoo or wildebeest. We shall begin our description of 
this graceful and interesting family with the latter. 

The Gnoo. — Of all four-footed animals this is one of the most 
awkward and grotesque. Resembling in some respects both the horse 
and buff'alo, the full-grown male stands upwards of four feet high at 
the shoulders and about nine feet in extreme length. In general con- 
tour, he is very muscular and exhibits great energy. The head is 
large and square with a large muzzle which is spread out and flattened, 
with narrow nostrils. Above the muzzle is placed a conspicuous tuft 
of black bristling hairs, which resemble a blacking brush. There is 
also a tuft of similar hair beneath each of the eyes. The latter are 
wild and fiery. The ears are pointed and short. White bristles sur- 
round the eye, spreading out like the radii of a circle. Similar white 
bristles appear on the upper lip. The horns are broad, placed close 
together at the base, furrowed upon the summit of the head and 
scarcely advancing from the skull, they taper out sideways over the 
eyes, and then take an upward turn, forming sharp and wicked hooks. 
The shoulder is deep and powerful, with a thick arched neck. The 
general color is deep brown with a white tail. It has been well said 
that the gnoo has the head of a buffalo, the mane and tail of a horse 
and the body and legs of an antelope. 

As the name ''wildebeest" by which they are usually known 
implies, they are very wild and as they usually have a hartebeest as 
sentinel, they are extremely wary and difificult to approach. It is a gre- 
garious animal, fond of the society not only of its own kind, but of 
giraffes, and ostriches, and zebras, which all roam about together in 
one immense mixed herd. Its disposition is very much like its appear- 



262 GRACEFUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 

ance ; for it is extremely suspicious, curious, yet shy, and timid, though 
irritable. 

When frightened by any strange object, it begins to whisk its 
long white tail with strange rapidity, then takes a sudden leap into 
the air, and alighting on the ground, begins to paw and curvet like a 
frisky horse. It and its neighbors then chase each other in circles at 
their utmost speed; and when they halt to inspect the intruder, some 
of the bulls will often engage one another in the most violent manner, 
dropping on their knees each time they come in collision. Finally, 
they wheel around, kick up their heels, give their tails a final flourish, 
and scamper across the plain in a cloud of dust, as if pursued by some 
torturing demon ! 

The hunter avails himself of the curiosity of the gnoo, as the 
Eskimo does of that of the seal, to bring about its capture. He hoists 
a red rag on a stick or on the muzzle of his gun, and throwing him- 
self on the ground, awaits the result of his stratagem. At first the 
gnoo rushes ofif at full speed, as if seized with some sudden fit; but 
soon its curiosity prevails over its fear. It turns ; it trots towards the 
unusual object ; it retires ; it wheels round and round ; it draws nearer ; 
and at last advances close enough for the hunter to deliver a mortal 
shot. 

The Brindled Gnoo. — There is another species of this remark- 
able animal known as the brindled gnoo. Slightly larger than the ordi- 
nary variety, it stands some four feet six inches high at the shoulder, 
and is about nine feet eight inches in extreme length. Other char- 
acteristics distinguish it. The neck is not arched, but the withers 
are elevated. The nose is aquiline and covered with coarse black hair. 
The muzzle is broad and square with large hanging nostrils. The 
horns are black, placed horizontally on the head with the points turned 
upwards and then acutely inwards. The neck carries a long and 
flowing mane which extends beyond the withers. The chin is covered 
with a bristly black beard descending to the breast. The eyes, too, 
are peculiar; they are small, black and piercing and mounted very 
high in the head. In contrast with the common variety, the tail is 
black and flowing, reaching to the ground. The general color is a 
dirty dun or brownish gray, variegated with obscure streaks or 



GRACEFUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 



263 



brindles from which the animal gets its name. The female is precisely 
similar, but smaller. 

The Eland. — The next in order is the eland or impoofo. This 
animal, while belonging to the order of ruminants, is the largest and 
most beautiful of the antelope family. Its height at the shoulder is 
about six feet six inches and the greatest length about twelve feet. In 
many ways the eland is much like the ox. The muzzle is broad and 
the facial line straight with a square forehead covered with a cluster 




THE ELAND 



of strong wiry brown hair, margined on either side by a yellow streak, 
commencing above the eyes, and nearly meeting half way down the 
face. The eyes are large and brilliant. The horns are placed on the 
summit of the forehead, are about two feet long, massive and nearly 
straight, with a ponderous ridge ascending in a spiral direction nearly 
to the tips. The neck is very thick and the shoulders deep and power- 
ful. The larynx is very prominent and there is a long dewlap fringed 
with long wiry brown hair descending to the knees. From the fore- 



264 GRACEFUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 

head rises a crest of bristles which pass upward and along the edge of 
the neck. The legs are short and like those of an ox, with large hind 
quarters, and the tail is about two feet three or four inches long, 
tufted on the end with coarse brown hair. The hide of the eland is 
black, but the general color of the short hair which covers it is a sort 
of ashy gray tinged with ochre. 

Except for the watchfulness and quickness of this animal, it is 
not hard to hunt. If an approach can be made on horseback up the 
wind in some sort of shelter from view, it is not difficult in good 
country to ride them down. If the going is bad, however, it is better 
to shoot on foot, and in this case the huntsman must take every precau- 
tion not to alarm the game, and even with the greatest care many 
disappointments must be expected. Very often, just as the hunter is 
preparing to shoot, an incautious movement will alarm the game and 
they will go off like the wind, and the stalk must be made over again. 

The Koodoo. — Continuing the antelopes, we come to the koo- 
doo. ^Majestic in its carriage and brilliant in its color, this species may 
with propriety be termed the king of the tribe. Other antelopes are 
stately, elegant or curious — ^but the solitude-seeking koodoo is abso- 
lutely regal! The ground color is a lively French gray approaching 
blue, with several transverse white bands passing over the back and 
loins; a copious mane and deeply fringed, tricolored dewlap setting 
off a pair of ponderous yet symmetrical horns, spirally twisted and 
exceeding three feet in length, brown in color, and the tips black 
with a white point. These are thrown along the back as the stately 
wearer dashes through the mazes of the forest or clambers the moun- 
tain side. The old bulls are invariably found apart from the females, 
which herd together in small groups and are destitute of horns. A 
full grown male stands upwards of five feet high at the shoulder and 
is over nine feet in extreme length. This beautiful animal is found 
chiefly in thickets and on wooded hills. The female koodoo is slighter, 
hornless and with fewer white markings. This species, as may well 
he imagined, is very attractive to the hunter and naturalist. 

Of the remaining large antelopes we must speak more briefly. 
An interesting one is the hartebeest, otherwise known as the red 
kongoni and as the caama. It is of bright orange color and the eyes 



GRACEFUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 265 

are fiery red in hue. A peculiarity is that the horns are placed on 
the very summit of the head, on a prolongation of the frontal bone, 
instead of above the eyes, as in the other antelopes. A male harte- 
beeste stands about five feet high at the withers and is about nine 
feet long. A closely related species is the sassaby, of about the same 
size and with strong horns worn in the same manner. ^ 

An interesting species of the larger antelopes is the waterbuck, 
a creature of the size of an ass, but browner in color. It is a stately 
animal, with ponderous, overhanging horns, three feet long, ringed 
and almost vertical, the points coming to the front. The flesh of 
this animal is so coarse and ill-flavored that even the savages refuse 
to eat it. 

One of the most beautiful, and most sought by the sportsman, 
among these creatures is the sable antelope. It is about four and a 
half feet high and nearly nine feet long, has a bushy mane and flat 
horns three feet long, curving in crescent shape over the back. 
The roan antelope — so called from its color — is as large as a horse and 
heavily built, with recurved horns with numerous rings. It lacks 
speed and can be easily ridden down, but is apt to charge viciously 
and put horse and rider both in danger. 

Of the smaller antelopes an interesting one is the oryx or gems- 
bok, which stands less than four feet high and has long, straight, 
sharp horns more than three feet long. It knows well how to use 
these, charging the hunter viciously, while it not infrequently kills 
the lion with a thrust of its formidable horns. 

A smaller species, the springbok, gets its name from the extra- 
ordinary leaps it makes when alarmed. The pallah, one of the 
forest-loving antelopes, is notable for its knotted and oddly twisted 
horns, of extraordinary size. It stands very high on its legs and 
moves with extreme grace. The bushbok is also a forest-haunter, as 
its name indicates, and differs in form from antelopes in general, 
approaching the goat in aspect. 

We are now among the smaller antelopes, which are numerous 
in species, far too much so to be mentioned here. The smallest 
species are those known as gazelles, some of which are remarkable 
for beauty and grace. Least of all is the pretty little kleenbok, 



266 GRACEFUL AFRICAN ANTELOPES 

about fifteen inches high and twenty-eight long, which is found in 
the forests along the sea-shore. Outside of Africa the best known 
antelopes are the chamois of the European Alps, the beautiful 
Asiatic gazelles and the prong-horn antelopes of the western United 
States. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

The Lion and Other Beasts of Prey 

THE Lion. — There is a highly important class of animals which 
are well known both in the wild and tame state and of which 
we speak as Beasts of Prey, because they feed on living things, 
which they are able to capture by their great strength and cunning. 
The scientific name for this group is Carnivora or Flesh Eaters. 
Among these are placed the animals belonging to the Cat Tribe, 
which includes the lion, the leopard, and many others of lesser size. 
Other families of the beast of prey type include dogs, hyenas, and 
wolves. Of these the hyena is peculiar to Africa. The most impor- 
tant member of this family from the point of view of all hunters in 
the African wilds, is the lion. Its mate in ferocity, the tiger, is 
not found in Africa. 

This much-sought beast is a native of Africa and Southwestern 
Asia, but in both continents is being driven back by the advance of 
civilization. The lion is distinguished from all other cats by the pre- 
sence of a large, thick mane in the adult male. A full-grown animal 
will measure rather more than eight feet from the nose to the end of 
the tail, which counts for nearly half, and is furnished at the end with 
a tuft of hair, in the center of which is a small horny prickle the use 
of which is unknown. The lion certainly does not employ it, as was 
once thought, to excite himself to fury by pricking his sides with it 
when he lashes his tail. The lioness is smaller than her mate and 
without a mane. She bears from two to four cubs at a litter, which 
native hunters often steal to sell to the dealers in wild beasts who 
supply the menageries, for the capture of a full-grown lion is rarely 
effected. The sire and dam both watch over their young, and train 
them to hunt prey. Thus young lions are more destructive than old 
ones; the former kill for the sake of killing, the latter only to satisfy 
hunger and provide for their mates and her cubs. 

(367) 



268 



THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 



Lions generally lie in wait for their prey, concealed in the reeds 
near some place where other animals come to drink, and then, spring- 
ing from their lair, leap upon the victim, striking it down with the 
paws. The neck is usually broken with a violent wrench of the 
powerful jaws, and the carcass is carried off to be devoured at leisure. 
The lion does not disdain the flesh of animals killed by the hunter. 
Gordon Gumming frequently saw lions feeding on antelopes that had 




THE HUNTER'S \D\I\TLRI WITH \ LION 



fallen by his rifle; and Stevens, who was sent by the New York 
Herald to find Stanley, saw three "bunched up inside the capacious 
carcass of a rhinoceros, and feeding off the foulest carrion imaginable." 
When pressed by hunger the lion will approach a native village by 
night and carry off goats and calves, but fires and torches will scare 
him away. 

The lion has been called the king of beasts, and a good deal has 



THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 269 

been wiitten about his courage and magnanimity. The former has 
been exaggerated ; the latter he does not possess. He will generally 
fight savagely if brought to bay, and the lioness, when with cubs, is 
still more dangerous ; but as a general rule, '* the king of beasts, ' ' if 
not molested, will bolt on sighting a man. 

The roar of the lion is extremely grand and striking, and at times 
a troop may be heard in concert, one taking the lead and three or 
four others chiming in like persons singing a catch. 

Does it not seem strange, if we come to think of it, that the 
lion which creeps up silently and by stealth to his prey, should yet 
possess a voice of such thunder that it may be heard from a very 
long distance indeed? If a lion were to roar, one would think that 
every animal in the neighborhood would take the alarm, and would 
at once fly from so dangerous an enemy. And surely such a voice 
would not have been given were it not intended to be used. 

The fact is that the lion, although his mighty voice certainly 
frightens his prey, nevertheless finds it of the greatest service to him 
at times, especially when he has been searching for food without 
success. At such times he places his nose upon the earth, and then 
roars several times as loudly as possible. The ten'ible sounds roll 
along the ground, seemingly from all directions at once, and so 
frighten all the animals which are crouching near, that in their alarm 
they rush hurriedly from their hiding-places, only to be pounced 
upon by the watchful lion. When hunters are making their arrange- 
ments for passing the night, they are always obliged to tether the 
horses and oxen very carefully, for fear that a lion should cause them 
to rush terror-stricken from the camp by adopting this peculiar 
method of attack. 

The Leopard. — Next in order of the cat family is the leopard. 
This animal is found in Africa and the warmer parts of Asia. He is 
about six feet long, of which the tail forms a little less than half. The 
fur is reddish-fawn, marked on the body with dark rosettes ; the tail 
is tinged with black, and the under-surface is whitish. He is arboreal 
in habit — that is, he lives much more in the trees than on the ground; 
in this I espect differing from the lion and the tiger, which rarely climb 
trees; so rarely, indeed, that some writers have doubted whether 



2 70 THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 

these larger cats have the power to do so. He is a very destructive 
animal, and preys upon sheep, goats, antelopes, and calves. Donkeys 
he leaves severely alone, because, to quote a recent writer on Eastern 
Equatorial Africa, "he knows well that a donkey, like a football 
player, is generally a good kick, and so prefers to give him a wide 
berth." 

He has a strange liking for dog-meat, and is always ready to dine 
off a dog, provided it be not too large. Dr. Pruen, in " The Arab 
and the African," tells an amusing story of the experiences of a 
leopard with two English mastiffs. His servant chained up the dogs 
on the veranda at dusk, and little time elapsed before a leopard, 
who had smelt dog from below, jumped in between them. He was 
evidently surprised at their size and still more so at the treatment he 
received, for " one dog got him by the head, the other by the tail, and 
the two quickly bowled him over. He lay perfectly still, astonished 
at the unexpected turn which e\rents had taken, whilst the dogs, evi- 
dently puzzled at his quiet behavior, simply held him there and 
growled, but offered him no further violence. Before the men, who 
had been standing near, could return with their guns, the leopard had 
taken advantage of the dogs' indecision to suddenly wriggle away and 
disappear in the darkness, leaving them without even a scratch. ' ' 

He sometimes carries off old women and children, but rarely 
attacks men, though when wounded he fights with great fierceness, 
and sometimes succeeds in killing his foe. In 1892, a high official 
in India wounded a leopard, as he thought, mortally, when the beast 
sprang upon him, threw him down, and badly mauled his left arm. 
Fortunately, a native hunter came up and pinned the brute to the 
ground with a spear, when the Englishman scrambled to his feet, and 
killed the leopard with a shot through the head. 

The Cheetah or Hunting Leopard. — This species, which is 
common to Asia and Africa, is of about the size of a leopard, but is 
longer in the body and limbs. The color is yellowish brown, diversi- 
fied by black and brown spots. It takes its prey by running rather 
than by leaping, creeping upon it and making a sudden rush. If fail- 
ing in this it soon gives up the chase, not being good for a long run. 
This animal is tamed in Asia and kept for hunting, packs of cheetahs 



THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 



271 



being kept by Indian princes. It occurs in a wild state in Africa and 
several specimens of it were shot by Kermit Roosevelt during the hunt 
in the British protectorate. 

The Hyena. — Externally, the hyenas have somewhat the ap- 
pearance of extremely ugly and unattractive-looking dogs.. They are 
somewhat larger than a shepherd's dog, and are covered with coarse 
bristly hair, short over the greater part of the body, but produced 







THE STRIPED HY^NA 
A repulsive animal, but useful for removing dead animals 

into a sort of mane along the ridge of the neck. The hyena walks 
stealthily on its toes rather than on the flat of its paw, its legs having 
much the same proportion as in an average dog, except for the fact 
that the hind legs are shorter than the fore legs, so that the body 
slopes from the front shoulders to the rear haunches. The claws 
resemble those of the dog, in that they cannot be retracted in sheaths 
of skin ; here, therefore, we have a great and marked difference from 
all the cat tribe. 



2 72 THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 

The hyenas, both the striped and spotted varieties, form part 
of that large body of animals which act as scavengers, or, in other 
words, which remove decaying animals and vegetable matter from the 
face of the earth, and so prevent it from giving off noxious emana- 
tions which might be the cause of disease. These animals, in fact, 
perform in the world just the same service as do the street cleaners 
in our towns and villages, and form an example of servants of natui-e 
whose work is similar to that of certain servants of our own. 

Now, as there is so vast a quantity of refuse matter daily to be 
carried away, nature has divided her scavengers into several classes, 
to one of which is given the task of removing putrefying flesh, to 
another that of disposing of decaying vegetable matter, and so on. 
And the task of the hyenas is that of devouring the bones of animals 
killed by the cats, which they do not eat themselves, and also the 
bodies of those which may have died from other causes. 

As many of the animals which they devour are of very large 
size, it is evident enough that the jaws of the hyenas must be im- 
mensely strong, in order to enable them to perform their work of 
breaking bones and tearing flesh; and no one who has ever seen a 
hyena engaged in feeding can doubt for a moment that nature has 
taken care to fulfil this requirement. With one bite of its powerful 
jaws it can crush the leg-bone of an ox to splinters, crunching it as 
easily as though it were a stick of celery, and seeming to think no 
more of it than we should of masticating a slice of bread and butter. 

As the hyena lives during the day-time in burrows which it 
scoops out by means of its fore legs, these limbs are very powerful, 
and the claws are large and strong. The whole strength of the 
animal, indeed, seems to lie in the head, shoulders, and fore legs, the 
hinder parts of the body being so small and feeble in comparison, 
that they seem scarcely fitted to form part of the same creature. 

The tail is bushy, the snout long, but blunt, giving the beast a 
snub-nosed appearance and a horribly vulgar expression, quite dif- 
ferrent from that of most of its relatives. The long-nosedness is 
partly, however, only a matter of external appearance, for the skull, 
although nothing like as short as a cat's, is yet very far from being 
as long as that of a dog or a civet, and it is still more cat-like in the 



THE LION AND OTHER BEASTS OF PREY 273 

immense width of the cheek-arches, and the great development of 
bony ridges for the attachment of muscles. 

Like some other beasts of a similarly mean nature, the spotted 
hyena, in particular, prefers not to do its own killing, but likes better 
to live as a sort of humble messmate on those better provided than 
itself with the courage requisite to good hunters. When it does cater 
for itself, instead of subsisting on the leavings of its betters, it always 
makes its attack in a cowardly way, and trusts rather to stratagem 
than to any of the higher qualities of a sportsman. 



BOOK FOUR 



THE 

NEW WORLD'S CHAMPION 

IN THE OLD WORLD 

His Receptions by Foreign Sovereigns and Peoples and Return 

to Activity in America 



(275) 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

Down the Nile to Khartum 

AT Gondokoro, the most northerly station in Uganda, Colonel 
Roosevelt bade a final adieu to the hunting country of which 
he had been a very active inmate for nearly a year. In love 
all his life with wild life and a hunter born, his months in the African 
wilderness had been months of deep enjoyment, which was added to 
by the spice of danger which gave the needed zest to his encounters 
with the savage wild beasts of Africa. 

He made many narrow escapes, from the elephant, the rhinoceros, 
the lion, the buffalo and the hippopotamus, but came through it all 
without a scratch. This may also be said of Kermit, his son, who 
proved himself a true "chip of the old block." The son surpassed the 
father, indeed, as an expert with the rifle, and was complimented by 
Scout Cuninghame as one of the best shots and most daring hunters 
he had ever seen. 

It was not only peril from the deadly charges of savage beasts 
that the hunters had to fear, but equal peril from the enervating fevers 
of Africa and the attacks of the equally deadly tsetse fly, that inocu- 
lates its victims with the germs of the incurable "sleeping sickness." 
As it was, both Colonel Roosevelt and his son came through their 
months of hardship and exposure without sickness and reached 
Gondokoro the picture of rugged health, though several of their better 
acclimated comrades suffered from attacks of fever, and one of the 
blacks of their train died. 

The first stage of the journey from Gondokoro ended at Lado, on 
the west bank of the Nile. Here the Congo Free State sends a spur 
northward along the great river, reaching its most advanced point at 
this outpost, where the lonely Belgian officers were glad enough of 
the opportunity to w^elcome and dine he American hunters and their 
party. As a special mark of honor they set afloat a huge American 

(277) 



i^ 



278 DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 

flag, made for the occasion, and gave the travelers an enthusiastic 
greeting. 

Shortly after leaving Lado the northern boundary of Uganda is 
reached, and the Nile enters the Egyptian Soudan, more than two 
thousand mxiles distant from its delta on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean and nine hundred miiles from the desert city of Khartum, at 
which the long steamboat journey would end. 

At Lado (in 5° north latitude) the rapids of the upper river end 
and thenceforth it m.oves slowly and shiggishly through the long and 
level Egyptian plain to the section below Khartum, where a series 
of cataracts, six in number, render the navigation of the Nile once 
more difficult. At a point about two and a half degrees north of 
Lado the sluggish stream becomes so choked with sudd, a thick 
accumulation of river plants, as to be almost impassable. Only by 
cutting and dragging out these dense masses of tangled weed can 
navigation be kept open and constant attention is needed. 

Here the channel divides and flows apart for miles through a low 
swampy region, which in the rainy season spreads into a lake-like 
expanse, thick with tall reeds and papyrus and the haunt of swanns 
of insect plagues. 

There are animals here, however, and a hunting party went out 
in search of gamic while the steamboat slowly made its way along the 
winding channel cut through the sudd. Lower down the Nile is fed 
by a number of streams flowing in from east and west, especially by 
the Bahr-el-Ghazul coming from the west and the navigable Sobat 
from the Galla country on the east. Sixty miles below the mouth 
of the Sobat lies Fashoda, a town in the Shilluk country notable as 
the seat of an im.portant historical incident, since it led to a threat of 
war between England and France. 

The occasion was the following: Thomas Marchand, a daring 
French explorer, distinguished himself in 1896-98 by making a long 
and difficult journey from Brazzaville, in the French Congo, to the 
upper Nile. Reaching Fashoda in July, 1898, he claimed it as French 
territory. Lord Kitchener, then Sirdar of Egypt, at once disputed 
the claim, declaring that Fashoda was in English territory and 
ordering Marchand to withdraw. The controversy that ensued 



DOWN THE XI LE W KHARTUM 279 

between the two nations grew to threatening proportions, but it 
finally ended in France acknowledging England's prior claim and 
the withdrawal of the French explorer. On his return home his 
excitable countrymen greeted him. as a hero. 

The mxonotonous and wearisome journey down the Nile made 
any matter of interest welcom.e, and this historic incident, with which 
P.oosevelt was familiar, led him to a close inspection of the little 
frontier town. As they drew nearer Khartum the monotony of the 
voyage was suddenly dissipated. The world had become agog with 
the news that the great American hunter v/as on his v/ay back to 
civilization, and its vanguard, in the shape of numerous newspaper 
correspondents, gathered at Khartum, every one of them eager to 
get the first glim.pse of the traveler and send the first dispatch to his 
particular journal. 

Thus it was that, while halting at a station miles south of Khar- 
tum, the travelers on the Dal caught sight, far down the stream, of 
coming sails, while the wind blew out the folds of a flag which, on 
nearer approach, showed the Vv^elcome stars of " Old Glory. ' ' As they 
advanced it became evident that a race was on, each boat doing its 
utmost to win the Roosevelt goal in advance of all competitors. 
The coming craft, chartered at Khartum, brought eager correspond- 
ents, who, in the words of one facetious journalist, were " so thick 
that they threatened to impede the navigation of the Nile. ' ' 

But eager as they were to greet and shake hands with the coming 
hero of the wilds, he was still m.ore eager to greet those enthusiastic 
newspaper m.en and feel that he was in close touch with the world of 
civilization once more. Questions were asked and answers given 
with lightning-like rapidity, and then the first few to reach the Dal 
put off at full speed on a wild race for the telegraph office in the town, 
each hoping to be first at the wire and get off the pioneer message. 

On Monday afternoon, March 14, the Dal reached Khartum and 
drew in to the landing near the palace of Sir Francis Wingate, Sirdar, 
or commander, of the British-Egyptian Army. It was a moment 
of extraordinary excitement in the usually quiet town, seemingly the 
entire population, black and white, British, Arab and native, gather- 
ing at the quay to shout an enthusiastic welcome to the famous 



'280 DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 

American. The British officials were highly cordial in their greeting, 
and Sir Francis welcomed the visitor effusively to his palace. 

But this warm greeting was just then of minor interest to the 
returned traveler, for he looked for a more gladsome one. On the 
railway train, running southward rapidly from Cairo and due at 
Khartum late that afternoon, were two persons in whom he took 
a far more vital interest — ^his wife and daughter, hastening to meet 
him in this far-off city on the desert border. 

Mrs. Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel had left New York a 
month or more earlier and had timed their journey so as to reach 
Khartum that day. Mr. Roosevelt's African trip had begun in New 
York on March 23, 1909. It was now March 14, 19 10. Almost a 
full year had elapsed since he had seen any of his family but his son 
Kermit, and his delight at the prospect of the coming meeting was 
natural. On the side of his wife and daughter there was a fiu-ther 
reason for joy, for they doubtless had been the victims of intense 
anxiety at times in view of the perils to which he had been exposed. 

A brief lunch at the Sirdar's palace and then the eager husband 
and father hurried to the station, for the train was nearly due and 
he must be there to meet them as they left the cars. He had not long 
to wait. The train rolled in with little delay and a glad meeting and 
greeting took place at which the public was not present, for the 
Sirdar had ordered that there should be no intrusion on the privacy of 
the reunited family. 

Leaving the Roosevelt family to their affectionate reunion, it is 
of interest to say something here of Khartum, a city around which 
many stirring events have taken place. Founded in 1823 under 
the rule of Mehemet AH, it grew into a place of commercial activity 
and was made the capital of the Egyptian Soudan. It was long a 
centre of the infamous slave trade, and among its articles of commerce 
were ivory, ostrich plumes, gums and tamarinds. When the Mahdi 
insurrection broke out in the Soudan, this place was one of the centres 
of the war. General Gordon hastened to its defence and during 1884 
held it against the attacks of the Arabs. In January, 1885, two days 
before the araiy of relief reached the town, Khartum fell and the 
brave Gordon was among the slain. 



DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 281 

The baffled English retired in discomfiture and for years the 
Arabs were masters of the region. They deserted Khartum and 
built Omdurman, on the opposite side of the river. The Mahdi 
died and a second Mahdi, distinguished as the Khalifa, took his place. 
Then, in 1898, the British army again advanced, under the able 
leadership of General Kitchener. Fierce and stern was the battle 
that followed; the Arabs fought with all their historic daring and 
disdain of death, but the better aniied British won, and on September 
21 the dervish army was routed and the Khalifa's power broken at 
Omdurman. Two days later the British and Egyptian flags were 
raised over the ruined building where Gordon had fallen. 

At that time Omdurman had a population of about 100,000. 
It is still a large place, but Khartum has been rebuilt and made the 
capital and to-day it is a handsome modern city, with all the advan- 
tages of civilization. Among its institutions is one called Gordon 
College, in honor of the slain leader, and here during his stay in Khar- 
tum Roosevelt addressed the students. One of his telling remarks 
was: 

"Think of it I sons of the Khalifa, El Mahdi, are studying at a 
college which perpetuates the name of the man originally responsible 
for the destruction of their father's power. " 

March 15, the day after reaching Khartum, the visitors devoted 
to sight-seeing. In the morning the visit to the Gordon College was 
made, and after leaving it the Roosevelts took a motor-car ride into 
the suburbs. On his return the hunter bade good-bye to his faithful 
blacks, some of whom had accompanied him thus far on his homeward 
journey. He gave each of them a cash present, and they also received 
gifts from Mrs. Roosevelt. Arrangements were made for their safe 
retvirn to their homes. 

The most interesting event of the day was a visit to the famous 
battlefield of Kerreri, seven miles north of Omdurman, where the 
Khalifa's army, 40,000 strong, had been decisively defeated ly 
Kitchener, 11,000 being left dead on the field. This overwhelming 
rout put an end to the Arab control of the region, which had con- 
tinued for fourteen years, and gave England — as the administrative 
power in Egypt — full control. 



282 DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 

Colonel Roosevelt was accompanied by his wife and children, 
Slatin Pasha, inspector-general of Egypt, and a number of others, 
the river being crossed to Omdurman in the Elfin, the Sirdar's yacht. 
Slatin Pasha had an interesting and almost tragical history, having 
fallen into the hands of the Arabs and been held prisoner by them for 
fourteen years. He had lived through a series of hardships which 
few men could have borne and remained a Christian after being forced 
for years to pray daily in a Mohammedan mosque. 

An escort of Soudanese cavalry was in waiting on the arrival of 
the yacht, and Colonel Roosevelt at once became interested in the 
picturesquely attired horsemen and in their skillful manoeuvers as 
they rode past him for inspection. The party then mounted camicls 
for the seven-mile trip in a hot temperature and over dusty roads. 
It was the first experience of any of them on the " ship of the desert, 
and the crowd cheered the ex- President as he mounted the ungainly 
beast, while dozens of cam.eras were focussed upon the party. Des- 
pite the close attentions of the throng and the difficulty of m.ain- 
taining their seats on the waddling brutes, they seemed to enjoy 
their new experience. 

The first halt was m.ade at the montmient erected to the Twenty- 
first Lancers, who here received their baptism of fire. During the 
battle the Lancers made a desperate charge to save the day, but fell 
into an amibush at one of the dry water courses seaming the plain, 
many of them being speared by the dervishes. The guides took the 
party to the very donga where the spearmen had been concealed, and 
described the defeat of the Lancers. 

Thence they proceeded to a hill overlooking the battlefield. 
Slatin Pasha, who had taken part in it, explained the position and 
attack. Colonel Roosevelt astonished the inspector-general with his 
marvelous knowledge of the history of Omdurman and the military 
tactics employed by both the British and Khalifa's troops. 

A clim.ax to the round of festivities that had greeted Colonel 
Roosevelt at every turn since he em.erged from the jungles, was 
reached on the night of the i6th when he was the guest of the Soudan 
Club at a banquet. Baron Slatin, mspector-general, presided, and 
all the prominent personages in Khartum attended. The inspector- 



DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 283 

general in a graceful speech proposed the former President's health, 
and Colonel Roosevelt responded in a speech which made an excellent 
impression. 

The dinner was served in the open grounds of the club, and covers 
were laid for about 1,000 guests. Chinese lanterns illuminated the 
scene and the band of the King's Own Scottish Borderers played 
selections — a delightful change from the bands of the native chiefs, 
whose music Colonel Roosevelt had listened to for the last year. 

Toasts were drunk to the King and the Khedive, the band accom.- 
panying them with the National anthems. When Colonel Roosevelt 
arose to speak he was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm. He 
eulogized the wonderful work of the British in civilizing the Soudan 
and compared the results to those on the Panama Canal, which is 
being accomiplished despite all criticism. He spoke of the marvelous 
changes which had taken place in the Soudan within twelve years and 
said that any attempt to overturn the stable government which had 
been established would be a crimiC against the country and humanity. 
It was when a nation undertakes to work for mankind regardless of 
profit to itself that it can justly l)e called great. During the address 
he took occasion facetiously to refer to the predictions of disaster to 
himself which several of his countrymen had made and to congratu- 
late himself on his escape from the somewhat imaginary perils. 

During the day Roosevelt and his family did miuch sightseeing, 
visiting the bazaars, inspecting the collection of ancient weapons and 
relics of the Mahdi war, and talking to the messengers of Ali Dinar, 
Sultan of Darf ur. He also made an address at the mission established 
by the United Presbyterian Church of Amierica, and spoke to the boys 
of the governm.ent school and to a delegation of merchants. 

March 17 wa.s the final day in Khartum, the Roosevelts propos- 
ing to leave by the 9 o'clock evening train. The morning was de- 
voted by the ex- President to getting rid of his accumulated corres- 
pondence and to finishing some literary work which he had in hand. 
In the afternoon he joined his friends and at 1.30 o'clock gave a 
luncheon in the palace to the remaining mxcmbers of the African 
expedition and others, many exchanges of friendship and farewells 
being m^ade. The guests included Sir AHred Pease, who was Colonel 



284 DOWN THE NILE TO KHARTUM 

Roosevelt's first host in Africa; Clayton Bey, of the Sirdar s staff, 
and Captain Meredith, of the steamer Dal, on which the party had 
come from Gondokoro. 

The ex-President tried to make the affair as lively as possible, but 
he was considerably moved when it came to shaking hands with those 
whom he was not likely to see again for a long time. He expressed 
the greatest admiration for Captain Cuninghame's strenuous and 
unremitting labors, and those of the naturalists, by reason of vv^hich 
the expedition had been made such a marked success. He subse- 
quently attended a reception by the officials of Khartum at the 
Grand Hotel. Here the band of the 12th Soudanese Infantry 
played a special program.me of native music, which is peculiarly 
weird and inspiring, for the benefit of Colonel Roosevelt. Later a 
group of native women gave an exhibition of dances peculiar to the 
Soudanese. 

An interesting event of the afternoon was the placing in position 
by Colonel Roosevelt of the keystone of the arch for the new cathedral. 
The affair was conducted with considerable ceremony. The former 
President also received a deputation of Syrians at the palace in the 
afternoon. 

In a speech at the Egyptian Officers' Club Colonel Roosevelt 
advised the officers to drop politics while they were soldiers. He was 
a soldier himself, he said, and a politician, but he never let them 
intermix. In the Spanish war many of his men differed from him in 
politics, but that made no difference in his or their position. He said : 

" The soldier who mixes in politics becomes a bad politician and 
a poor soldier. So long as he wears his uniform a soldier is bound in 
honor to spend all his thought, will and energy in working for the 
greatness of the flag under which he has fought or has engaged to fight. " 

He told the Egyptian officers to remember also that a non-political 
attitude was the safest, as they were sworn to the service of their 
country. His address was received with much enthusiasm, and as 
he departed in company with Slatin Pasha for the palace he was 
warmly cheered. At 9 o'clock that evening he and the members of 
his family entered the train, and Khartum soon vanished from sight 
in the darkness of night. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

Roosevelt in the Valley of the Nile 

THE railway journey of the Roosevelt family from Khartum to 
Wady Halfi, 575 miles down the historic Nile, was necessary 
to take them past the cataract region of the river, the sixth 
cataract being situated not far below Khartum and the second in 
the vicinity of Wadi Haifa. At that point the Nile voyage was to be 
resumed as far as Assouan, the site of the first cataract. Leaving 
Khartum on a special train at 9 o'clock on the night of the 17th, the 
station at Wadi Haifa was not reached until a late hour of the next 
night, so that there was a whole day's ride through the country. 

Colonel Roosevelt observed it with much interest, and was 
enthusiastic in praise of the luxury of the railway travel through 
the desert. He pleased his hosts by remarking that this road was 
a monument to the colonizing enterprise of the British people, who 
seemed able to overcome all difficulties. "The desert offers a 
striking contrast to the green of the wilderness where I've lately 
been, " he observed. " The mirages on both sides of the road remind 
me of those I saw in the Sotik country in British East Africa. In 
one I saw a rhinoceros which I believed to be standing in a shallow 
lake, which proved to be a mirage. ' ' 

Mr. Roosevelt was especially interested in the purple colorings 
on the occasional hills, thrown up probably by volcanic action. The 
colonel talked much with Captain Middleton, director of railways in 
the Soudan and one of his companions on the train, about the cam- 
paign against the Khalifa, in which the captain had taken part. He 
said that its success was largely the result of engineering enterprise,' 
since the difficulties of the desert had been overcome by the building 
of a railway for the conveyance of troops and supplies. Had such 
means existed fourteen years before, the Mahdi would have been 
shorn of his triumph. 

(a85) 



286 ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 

He also thoroughly discussed the irrigation work in Egypt and 
the Soudan with Sir William Garstin, a noted engineer, who was on 
the train. Egypt owes her most modern irrigation works to the 
engineering capacity of Sir William, who took a leading part in the 
construction of the great Assouan dam and is one of the highest 
authorities on the subject of in^igation. 

At Haifa the travelers found awaiting them the steamboat Ibis, 
which was to take them to Shellal, at the head of the first cataract, 
about 150 miles down the Nile. 

At Shellal there was much to interest them. Here was the 
beautiful temple to Isis, the most charming relic of Egyptian archi- 
tecture. Unfortunately, modern needs have here proved seriously 
destructive to ancient art, the great Assouan dam, built for the good 
of the people, having raised the level of the river until the Island 
of Philae and the splendid buildings erected upon it are largely 
submerged. Only the great columns of the temple, thirty-two in 
number, rise like a marble grove above the water, and the party 
was taken through them in a boat, admiring much the beauty of 
their foiTn and capitals. From the temple they were taken to the 
great dam, a magnificent piece of masonry. While it has drowned 
the island and its triumphs of art, it has added a considerable area 
of fertile irrigated soil to the farming region of Egypt and largely 
improved the food supply. 

On their way down the river they had halted to visit the famous 
rock temple at Abu Sambul, the finest of its kind in the world, where 
the four colossal statues of Rameses the Great sit in solitary but 
serene majesty overlooking the valley of the Nile. Colonel Roosevelt 
sharply condemned the vandals who had cut their names on the 
breasts and arms of the figures, saying the Government should treat 
them as they would be treated in America, as, for instance, in Yellow- 
stone Park, where guilty vandals of this kind are compelled to 
return at their own expense and erase their work. 

An interesting example of Egyptian archasology was seen at 
Assouan in the recently excavated tombs containing the miimmies 
of Egyptian princes of 3,000 years ago. Colonel Roosevelt was 
interested in those which presented pictures of the domestic life of 



ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 287 

those days, showing a king fishing with a two-pronged spear and 
watching donkeys entering a town. He returned in the launch to 
Shellal, expatiating on the exquisite beauty of Philae in the twiHght, 
with the long shadows cast by the columns and rocky hills in the rose 
lights of the evening. 

On leaving Assouan the travelers returned to the railway, taking 
the regular train for Luxor, which was due at that station on the 
evening of the 21st. Here are the ruins of ancient Thebes, the 
splendid capital of the kingdom of Egypt during its later centuries. 
But the Thebes of to-day is a very different place from the Thebes 
of old. The Roosevelts found there modern hotels, filled with 
tourists, many of them from their own far-off land, and all over- 
flowing with enthusiasm in the opportunity of welcoming their 
former President. It was the first breaker of that tidal wave of 
admirers which awaited him in Europe. 

English and Egyptian officials also greeted them cordially and 
the Italian consul sent his carriage to convey the travelers to the 
hotel. It was the traveler's first carriage ride since he had entered 
the jimgle. Dinner was served on the hotel verandah, and afterward 
he gave an informal reception to about a hundred Americans, who 
hailed him gladly as their own. Three hearty cheers were given him,, 
followed by the familiar cry, "What's the matter with Roosevelt?" 
and the stereotyped answer, "He's all right ! ' ' 

"All I have to say," Colonel Roosevelt remarked, smiling 
characteristically, "is that I'd like to give three cheers for each of 
you from California, through Idaho and Nebraska and Iowa and 
Illinois, clear to Massachusetts and for the States from which you 
hail." 

Accomj^anied by his wife, Ethel, Kermit and Director of Anti- 
quities Wiegall, he then visited the Karnak temples. He had been 
here thirty-seven years before, when Luxor was without hotels, and 
he described it then as a scene of barbaric beauty. That recollection 
now paled before the magnificence of the sight. A half-moon, 
occasionally obscured by the clouds, bathed the ruins in soft light, 
lending a fairy touch to the scene. 

"It is beautiful," he exclaimed, as he strolled through the 



288 ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 

Temple of Ammon, which is considered the superb creation of an 
age peculiarly noted for its architectural creations. 

The following day was largely devoted to a visit to the famous 
tombs of the kings, the men of the party mounting horses, while 
a comfortable carriage was provided for the ladies. The party first 
entered Sethos, the most beautiful of the Biban El Moluk tombs. 
The caverns in the rocky hills reached back into long corridors 
lighted by fitful candles and occasionally by electricity, recalling the 
descent into mines. 

At the tomb of Jenophis the party was led through the darkness 
by a railing. Suddenly the light was turned on and they looked at a 
crypt containing a mummy-shaped cofQn with the blackened remains 
of the king, his arms folded in the manner of Napoleon. This is the 
most dramatic sight in connection with the antique monuments of 

Egypt. 

The party was then taken to another tomb, where Harold Jones, 
the English artist, was painting on canvas the beautiful frescoes. 
Mr. Weigall, the inspector-general, who accompanied the party, then 
showed the tomb of Noremheb, which was discovered two years ago 
and had not yet been opened to the public. The day was the hottest 
since Colonel Roosevelt reached civilization, the southwest wind 
resembling a sirocco. 

When the inspection of the tombs was completed, Mr. Weigall, 
wishing to test the famous endurance of the ex- President, suggested 
a tramp across the cliffs, which led through a perilous path where the 
heat is intensified by the reflection on the rocks, expecting that Mr. 
Roosevelt would object. No objection came and the hardy traveler 
led in the tramp, making Mr. Weigall admit that he had under- 
estimated the strength of the American. On returning, four men of 
the party, including Mr. Roosevelt, engaged in a horse race for a mile 
over the desert in the hot sun. Colonel Roosevelt winning easily by 
the grace of his horse, as he laughingly said. Mr. Weigall and 
Kermit tied for second place. 

"He astonished me by his knowledge of the relations of the 
rulers who lived several thousand years ago," observed Mr. Weigall. 
In connection with Hatesu VHI, Mr. Roosevelt recalled that she was 



ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 289 

the first woman ruler of civilized history, and from the am.ount of 
trouble she gave Tomes, one of her numerous husbands, the Colonel 
suggested that he must have been the first henpecked husband of 
whom any record exists. 

The return to Luxor was made leisurely, and it was mid-after- 
noon when the tourists reached their hotel. They were enthusiastic 
over what they had seen, and though they did not discover the " one 
hundred gates," they cheerfully accepted the tradition as well as 
that of the "twenty thousand chariots of war" with which beautiful 
Thebes was once credited. Later in the day Roosevelt visited the 
German consulate, and there was shown a book bearing the signa- 
tures of his father and Ralph Waldo Emerson, which were written 
in 1873. 

The railway ride from Luxor to Cairo, which was next under- 
taken, is 454 miles in length, and the modern capital of Egypt was 
reached in the early morning of the 24th. Long before daylight the 
city had been decked with American flags, from the old Arabian 
Cairo through Ezbeki Garden to the fashionable foreign quarter of 
IsmaiHa. For days the one topic of conversation had been the 
expected arrival of the American statesman and hunter, and in the 
restaurants, on the streets and in the corridors of the hotels his 
name was heard continually. Though the season at the hotels was 
nearly closed, hundreds of Americans and other tourists had remained 
to greet the travelers. An hour before train time an enormous 
crowd gathered at the railway station, and there was a good deal of 
jostling for points of vantage. At the hotel another crowd was 
waiting and another noisy demonstration was received. The gviests 
at the hotel included many Americans, and from every flagstaff on or 
near the building the Stars and Stripes were flying. 

During the afternoon the state coach called for Mr. Roosevelt 
and conveyed him to the Abdin Palace, where he was received by 
Abbas Hilmi, the Khedive of Egypt, this being the first of the royal 
receptions to the American ex- President. 

The following day was devoted to sight-seeing. It was the last 
day to be spent among the Egyptian antiquities, and at an early 
hour the enthusiastic traveler was astir. After breakfast he was 

19 



290 ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 

called upon by a messenger, who brought the compliments of the 
Khedive and placed at his disposal a special camel corps. The 
animals were of the best Bisharin breed, and there was an accom- 
panying guard of soldiers in sand-colored uniforms, with cartridge 
belts over their shoulders and rifles pendant from their saddles. 

Colonel Roosevelt and Kermit mounted camels while Mrs. 
Roosevelt and her daughter v/ere assisted into a sand cart with 
broad tires. Preceded by two soldiers on Arabian horses and 
followed by the camel corps, the party proceeded to the Necropolis, 
about twenty miles away. 

The Sphinx, in its way the most rem.arkable of the Egyptian 
antiquities, had been visited the night before, when the soft light 
of the moon gave it its most fitting illumination. It was therefore 
quickly passed now, and only the great pyramids rose before them 
as they rode onward to the ancient Sakkara tombs, which date 
from 5,000 years in the past. 

Descending through the narrow sloping passage cut in the sand 
Roosevelt entered the dark doorway, from which came hot, dank air, 
as from a furnace. Across the threshold he plunged into the dark- 
ness and silence of the tomb. Each miember of the party was fur- 
nished with a sputtering candle and conducted through the narrow 
cori-idors over flagstones, around fallen debris, past a huge block of 
granite for an intended sepulchre which had evidently been dropped 
hastily for some cause now unknown. 

Coming to the caverns and walls the guides lowered the candles 
to show the sarcophagi within which had been interred sacred bulls 
covered with armored plates of gold. Roosevelt entered one of these 
vaults. He ascended the ladder and peered into the black interior 
of one of these sarcophagi, which is twelve feet in length, ten in 
height and weighs between sixty and seventy tons. 

On leaving the tombs, they proceeded to the nearby temple, 
one which presents probably the best record of Egypt's early art, 
about 3500 B. C, showing the various occupations and the dress of 
the inhabitants of that period. Colonel Roosevelt pointed out, 
depicted on the walls, certain animals which he had seen in Equa- 
torial Africa, but which are now extinct in Egypt. 



ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 291 

His attention was called to the figures of men stuffing geese 
and swan. "But that isn't all," said Egyptologist Watson. "The 
early Egyptians stuffed hyenas for food. ' ' Roosevelt immediately 
became interested. 

"Ate hyenas?" he asked. He was taken to the wall where the 
proof was shown. "How astonishing," he commented. 

While impressed by these antiquities, those which will remain 
especially in his memory are the tombs of the Kings at Luxor and 
Karnak and the Sphinx by moonlight. Yet it was easy to see that, 
while interested profoundly in the monuments of the past, he really 
was most deeply appealed to by present political and economic condi- 
tions. An instance of this was seen in the tomb. A beautifully 
engraved story on a wall showed a court of law with a native under- 
going a beating by officers of justice to induce him to testify. 

"The worst corruption of Tammany Hall, " said Colonel Roose- 
velt, " was nothing compared to the corruption and tyranny recorded 
as a matter of course in these hieroglyphics. " 

The folio Vvdng day was devoted to Cairo and was a very busy day, 
receptions, sight-seeing and a lunch with royalty being the order of 
ceremonies. The morning was given to a reception to the Americans 
in Cairo, with abundant hand-shaking, cheers, and the singing of 
the appropriate national song," My Country, 'tis of thee." Colonel 
Roosevelt, while not making a speech, said that he was glad to see 
America in the East, and jokingly recalled his remark before leaving 
America, that "Wall Street expected every lion to do its duty." 
" Not a lion did his duty, " he now declared, amid the laughter of the 
throng. 

He subsequently visited the antique Elazhar mosque, completed 
in 973, and later turned into a university. At the " Gate of the Bar- 
bers ' ' the visitors were detained until yellow-colored shoes could be 
tied over their boots, as the feet of infidels are not permitted to 
desecrate the floors of Mohammedan places of worship or religious 
study. 

Through doorways came the droning of the voices of the students 
reciting verses from the Koran. He was conducted through various 
large courts where were professors surrounded by students, to whom 



292 ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 

they were lecturing on Mohammedan Hterature, history, juris- 
prudence and science. 

Everything wps based upon the teachings of the Koran in exactly 
the same way instruction was given almost a thousand years ago, 
and he was informed that some of the students never leave the 
university. Many frec^uently remain forty years. He heard white- 
bearded Sheiks join with shrill-voiced boys of eight years in 
reciting the Koran. 

The visitor was taken to the library and shown rare old parch- 
ment manuscripts in Arabic, many beautifully illuminated, the 
librarian bringing numerous treasures from hidden recesses. 

Colonel Roosevelt asked for the address of a book store, where 
he could purchase an old copy of the Koran, and then he returned 
to his hotel. Shortly after his arrival Wally Bey, a Mohammedan, 
appeared and gave him twelve books of the Koran in Arabic, illumi^ 
nated in gold. He explained that they were presented because of 
the colonel's interest in the literature of Mohammedanism. Roose- 
velt cordially thanked the Bey, and asked the age of the books, 
which he was told was at least two centuries. 

The next event of the day was a visit to the Abdin Palace and 
luncheon with the Khedive; Mrs. Roosevelt, Kermit and Ethel being 
present, and also Ambassador Straus and his wife. The ministry of 
the government was presented, and the Khedive displayed more 
interest in talking with Roosevelt than he had ever shown in any 
foreigner. He asked numerous questions on various subjects of 
local and international importance, and explained at great length the 
Egyptian situation. The busy day ended with a dinner at the 
American agency and a reception. 

March 27th was the critical day of Roosevelt's visit to Egypt. 
He succeeded in exploding a rhetorical bombshell which stirred up 
a mint of trouble and proved that the American ex-President 
had lost none of his old vim. The event took place during his ad- 
di-ess before the Cairo University. Its occasion was the Nationalist 
movement in Egypt to displace British rule and the tragedy to which 
this had recently led, the assassination of the Premier Butros Pasha, 
who was hated by the Nationalists for his support of the British 
administration. 



ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 293 

The tragic act was a sore point in Egypt, one avoided by Egyp- 
tian and Englishman ahke. Though a month had passed since the 
assassination, the murderer had not been tried, the Enghsh, for some 
reason, hesitating to act promptly. There was no hesitation in 
Theodore Roosevelt. Murder was murder, and could not be glossed 
over. Though there were forebodings of trouble if he should refer 
to this event, they failed to affect him. The pith of his address was 
in these words: 

" All good men, all men of every nation whose respect is worth 
having, were inexpressibly shocked by the assassination of Boutros 
Pasha Ghali. It was a greater calamity to Egypt than a wrong to the 
individual himself. 

" The type of man that turns assassin is the type possessing all 
the qualities which alienate him from good citizenship, the type 
producing poor soldiers in time of war and worse citizens in time of 
peace. Such a man stands on the pinnacle of evil and infamy. 
Those apologizing for or condoning his act by word or deed, directly 
or indirectly encouraging such an act in advance or defending it 
afterward, occupy the same bad eminence, 

" It is of no consequence whether the assassin is Moslem or Chris- 
tian, or with no creed, or whether the crime was committed in poli- 
tical strife or industrial warfare. The rich man 's hired act, performed 
by a poor man, whether committed with the pretense of preserving 
order or of obtaining liberty, is equally abhoiTcnt in the eyes of all 
decent men and in the long run eqtially damaging to every cause the 
assassin professes. ' ' 

What more he said is of minor consequence. It was these words 
that stirred up Egypt and England to the bottom. From the Na- 
tionalists came hot protests against his words and a mob of students 
howled denunciations before his hotel. In England there was as 
great a stir, with varied opinions in the governmental and opposition 
parties. But the true sentiment of the world at large was that thus 
expressed by Le Progres, a French journal: 

" While violating Oriental rules of politeness in disregarding plati- 
tudes, this man has spoken to them, not with words in an empty 
sense, but calling a cat a cat, calling Wardani an assassin, calling 



294 ROOSEVELT IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE 

his instigators infamous criminals. This man dared to say that it is 
necessary to put at the base of all durable institutions honesty. He 
said that to make real progress it is necessary, sometimes painfully 
and with perseverance, to advance slowly. Mr. Roosevelt dared to 
speak to the Egyptians as to his own countrymen. His address was 
so full of good sense and justice that it created an outburst of protests 
which have no real meaning because Egyptians love nothing better 
than oratorical expressions. 

Meanwhile the orator went his way as serenely as if he had been 
indulging in empty rhetoric, and at the day's end left Cairo for 
Alexandria in a chorus of demionstrations and God-speeds, some 
of the cries being "Long live Mr. RooseveU. " "Long live the 
truth ! " " Don 't forget Egypt ! " In the afternoon of the following 
day he boarded the steam.er Prinz Heinrich at Alexandria and left 
Egypt for Italy, the splendid weather of the day promising him p 
delightful trip. 




CHAPTER XXXV, 

Our Ex-President in the Land of the Caesars 

^HE twentieth century, young as it is, has not been lacking in 
remarkable events. And far the most rem.arkable of these, 
one astounding in its proportions and significance, has been 
the spectacle of a procession of European monarchs, the haughty lords 
of civilization, waiting in eager attitude to meet and greet as an 
equal a simple American citizen, one no higher in rank than any other 
of the ninety million of his fellow-countrymen. Who could have 
foreseen such an event. Truly it was one to make the world sit up 
and take notice. Never has there been anything more significant. 
It was not alone Theodore Roosevelt as a person that royalty stood 
ready to honor, but Theodore Roosevelt as a world force, the embodi- 
ment of a great principle, the vigorous representative of integrity in 
office, energy in thought and action, and unyielding advocacy of that 
principle of " a square deal for all men" which the world is now 
strenuously demanding and for which Roosevelt stands. 

He had proved himself a man among men, an American of the 
highest type, and the position he had won in world politics was to be 
strikingly indicated by the events of the next few weeks. The era 
of royal admiration had begun with the Khedive, the half-king of 
Egypt, and now the Italian monarch stood ready to take up the 
strain. 

Landing in Naples on the morning of April 2d, the returning 
traveler found a m.ass of letters and telegrams awaiting him, which 
he disposed of in his usual urgent fashion. In the afternoon he 
visited the famous Aquarium, the abundant treasures of which he 
found of deep interest. Thence he went to Pompeii and plunged intc 
a nest of antiquities of a far more modern type than those he had 
just left in Egypt. 

In the evening he and his wife were guests of the Prefect at the 

(295) 



296 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

Theatre San Carlos, and here Naples rose to greet him. The Amer- 
cans present set the ball rolling with a chorus of cheers, which were 
^aken up by a great body of students in the third gallery. The ovation 
'Vas a tremendous one and the theatre rang with tumultuous applause. 

During an intermission in the play a large number of students 
narched to the rear of the Roosevelt box and were presented by 
Professor Boggiano of the Naples University, who gracefully recalled 
a Roosevelt saying, that the greatest problem of the United States 
was the maintenance of the moral well-being and strength of the 
people. "This is also the greatest problem for all countries," con- 
tinued the professor. In his brief reply Roosevelt appealed to 
the students to set before them the highest ideals, but said to them : 
" Life is a struggle. You must not keep in the clouds. Your ideals 
must be such as can be realized. " 

But all was not to be rose-colored in the Italian visit. There 
loomed before the traveler a problem of deep annoyance, one that 
was to excite more interest than the occurrence in Egypt and which 
called for immediate and discreet deception. It had naturally been 
his desire to call on the Pope and the Italian King, but an event had 
recently occurred in Rome that was to interfere with the former. 
A proselyting Methodist congregation in Rome had given deep offence 
to the Papacy by its methods, and when the former Vice-President 
Fairbanks, in his late visit to Rome, had agreed to speak before 
this congregation, an audience arranged for him at the Vatican was 
canceled. 

Colonel Roosevelt had included a reception by the Pope as 
among the coming events of his career, but Cardinal Merry del Val, 
the Papal Secretary, put a snag in his path. While at Cairo he 
received the following communciation from Ambassador Leishman: 

"Rome, March 25th. — The rector of the American College, in 
reply to an inquiry I caused to be made, requests that the following 
communciation l)e transmitted to you: 

" The Holy Father will be delighted to grant an audience to 
Mr. Roosevelt on April 5, and he hopes nothing will arise to prevent 
it, such as the much-regretted incident which made the reception to 
Mr. Fairbanks impossible.'" 



OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 297 

Here was a distinct intimation that Mr, Roosevelt must restrict 
his hberty of action while at Rome, if he wished an audience with 
the Holy Father. Mr. Leishman's view of the case as cabled to 
Cairo, was the following: 

" I merely transmit this communication without having com- 
mitted you in any way to accept the conditions imposed, as the form 
appears objectionable, clearly indicating that an audience would be 
canceled in case you should take any action while here that might 
be construed as countenancing the Methodist mission work here, as in 
the case of Mr. Fairbanks. Although fully aware of your intentions 
to confine your visit to the King and Pope, the covert threat in the 
Vatican's communication to you is none the less objectionable, and 
one side or the other is sure to make capital out of the action you 
might take. The press is already prepared for the trouble, ' ' 

It was clearly impossible for Mr. Roosevelt to agree to an audi- 
ence imposed under such conditions, and he did not hesitate to say 
so. His reply was: 

" It would be a real pleasure to me to be presented to the Holy 
Father, for whom I entertain a high respect, both personally and as 
the head of a great Church. I fully recognize his right to receive or 
not receive whomsoever he chooses for any reason that seems good 
to him, and if he does not receive me I shall not for a moment question 
the propriety of his action. On the other hand, I, in my turn, must 
decline to make any stipulations or to submit to any conditions which 
in any way limit my freedom of conduct. I trust that on April 5th 
he will find it convenient to receive me. ' ' 

An ultimatum from Rome followed in a cable message received 
two days later. This assented to Mr. Roosevelt's right to freedom of 
conduct, but declared: 

" On the other hand, in view of the circumstances for which 
neither His Holiness nor Mr. Roosevelt is responsible, the audience 
could not take place except on the understanding expressed in the 
former message. ' ' 

This closed the affair so far as Roosevelt was concerned. He 
wired back to the Ambassador, stating that of course the presenta- 
tion was now clearly impossible. But it did not close it so far as 

J 



298 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

the world was concerned. The bombshell at Cairo had in this affair 
been followed by a second one at Rome and public opinion was 
everywhere stirred up. Once more Mr. Roosevelt, this time with no 
incitement on his part, stood in the limelight of controversy. He 
had no wish to be misunderstood and at a later date thus expressed 
himself in the Outlook: 

" I am sure the great majority of my fellow citizens. Catholics 
quite as much as Protestants, will feel that I acted in the only way 
possible for an American to act, and because of this very fact I most 
earnestly hope that the incident will be treated in a matter of course 
way as merely personal, and also as not warranting the slightest 
exhibition of rancor and bitterness. 

"Among my best and closest friends are many Catholics. The 
respect and regard of those of my fellow Americans who are Catholics 
is as dear to me as the respect and regard of those who are Protestants. 
On my journey through Africa I visited many Catholic as well as 
many Protestant missions, and I look forward to telling the people 
at home all that has been done by Protestants and Catholics alike as 
I saw it in the field of missionary endeavor. It would cause me a 
real pang to have anything said or done that would hurt or give 
pain to my friends whatever their religious belief, but any merely 
personal considerations are of no consequence in this matter. 

" Bitter comment and criticism, acrimonious attack and defense 
are not only profitless but harmful, and to seize upon such an incident 
as this as an occasion for controversy would be wholly indefensible 
and should be frowned upon by Catholics and Protestants alike. I very 
earnestly hope that what I say will appeal to all good Americans. 

The incident had an unpleasant aftermath. This came in the 
form of a statement from the Rev. B. M. Tipple, pastor of the 
American Methodist Church in Rome. His expressions were of the 
following offensive type : 

" The representatives of two great republics have been the ones 
to put the Vatican where it belongs. President Loubet refused to 
accede to Vatican conditions, and now Mr. Fairbanks and Mr. Roose- 
velt come to maintain the dignity and independence of American 
manhood in the face of Vatican tyranny. 



OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 299 

" The Vatican is incompatible with repubHcan principles. This 
is a bitter dose for patriotic Catholics in America to swallow. I 
wonder how many doses of this sort they will take before they revolt. 
Is Catholicism in America to be American or Romish? If Romish, 
then every patriotic American should rise to crush it, for Roman 
Catholicism is the uncompromising foe of freedom. 

" After the Fairbanks episode the Methodists never dream.ed that 
the Vatican would commit a similar blunder with Mr. Roosevelt. 
That it has done so is added proof that the policy prevailing there 
is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. The Vatican is the Vati- 
can. The world advances, but the Vatican never. 

"Americans can now better understand how it is that the 
Roman Church has lost France, the men of Italy, and is losing Spain 
and Austria. ' ' 

Intemperate denunciations of this kind were not calculated to 
mend matters. Roosevelt did not propose to be drawn into counte- 
nancing such an attack, in any way, and at once called off a reception 
to the members of the American colony, fixed for the following night, 
lest it should, in the members of the Methodist congregation that 
might attend, seem like an endorsem.ent of the Tipple attack. He 
vigorously deprecated the excitement to which the affair had given 
rise, declaring that the incident was personal to himself, and was 
confident that his countrymen, Catholic and Protestant alike, would 
sustain his position. 

And so they seemed inclined to do. Mr. Roosevelt received 
many messages, not only from Protestant and Catholic friends in the 
United States indorsing his action, but from people throughout 
Europe, many of whom he did not know, and an American priest, 
then in Rome, warmly felicitated him upon what he had done, saying 
that he believed American Catholics would approve of the course he 
had taken. 

Many Catholics in Rome indeed openly disapproved of the 
Vatican's course, feeling that the discretion of Mr. Roosevelt might 
have been fully depended upon. And this was not confined to 
laymen, but extended to the hierarchy and even to the sacred 
college itself, some of the cardinals privately expressing dissatis- 



300 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

faction with the action taken. The inclination was to place the 
responsibiHty on the shoulders of Cardinal Merry del Val, the Spanish 
papal secretary, and some of the violent, anti-cl'^rical sheets intimated 
that the affair might result in the downfall of the offending secretary. 

As for the public at large, however, the incident soon sank out 
of sight, and people turned with no decrease of zest to watch the 
almost regal progress of their hero through the royal demxCsne of 
Europe. In what this consisted we shall briefly state. 

The King of Italy hastened to do honor to his distinguished 
visitor. On April 4th, the day of his arrival at Rome, King Victor 
Emmanuel received him at the Quirinal at an early hour, greeting him 
with particular warmth and spending an hour in private conversa- 
tion with him. In the evening the King and Queen gave a grand 
dinner at the palace in honor of the ex-President and his family. 
Other events of that busy day were a visit to the Pantheon, where 
a popular demonstration took place, a lunch with the American 
Ambassador, and a reception of Italian journalists. 

The dinner was an affair of much ceremony. At the entrance 
of the Quirinal palace at 8 o'clock that evening, the door of the guest's 
carriage was opened by the imposing figure of the royal doorkeeper, 
magnificent in scarlet livery, with sword and baton and cocked hat, 
seemingly right out of the Middle Ages. At the foot of the grand 
staircase Count Tozzoni and Duke Cito, masters of ceremonies, and 
Count Guicciardini, gentleman-in-waiting to Queen Helena and a 
relative of the Minister of Foreign Aft'airs, met the party and escorted 
them up the steps, which were decorated with palms and flowering 
shrubs. 

In the great hall of the Swiss they were received by Count 
Gianotti, prefect of the palace, whose wife was Miss Kinny, of New 
York, and by Countess Guicciardini, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, 
who took them through the great ballroom into a reception room 
hung with priceless tapestries, where they were greeted by the 
sovereigns, surrounded by their military and civil households. 

After a short conversation all the guests, who included the 
American Ambassador and Mrs. Leishman and the staff of the 
Embassy, adjourned to the private dining room of the King — a spa- 



OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 301 

clous hall hung with modern tapestry and decorated with immense 
plants and flowers. The dinner was enlivened by the military band 
in the gardens below. 

King Victor Emmanuel called upon Mr. Roosevelt at his hotel 
the following morning, and some time was spent in an animated con- 
versation that was, it could be seen, mutually agreeable. Following 
the chat the King and Mr. Roosevelt entered the motor car in which 
his majesty had driven to the hotel, and a visit was paid to the 
baiTacks of the Cuirassiers, the royal bodyguard. The Cuirassiers 
executed a series of maneuvers for the benefit of their visitor, who 
said he had never seen a finer body of mounted men. 

From the barracks the King and his guest motored to the monu- 
ment to Victor Emmanuel II, in course of construction. Leaving 
the car the two climbed to the top of the colossal structure, upon 
which $10,000,000 has been expended thus far. As they drove back 
to the hotel they were warmly acclaimed by the populace. 

In the afternoon the Roosevelts made a sight-seeing automobile 
trip with Professor Jesse B. Carter, director of the American school 
of classical studies at Rome, and explored the Roman Forum. Here 
the visitor was enthusiastic, saying: "No man can inspect the ruins 
of classic Rome without feeling that he is visiting the birthplace of 
civilization. " 

Returning, he stopped at an antique jewelry store, which he had 
visited forty-three years ago as a boy. The proprietor searched the 
old register and found Roosevelt's name. 

At a later hour Signor Ferra, sovereign grand commander of the 
supreme council. Ancient Scottish Rite, with a deputation, called at 
his apartments and conferred upon him a high Masonic title. Colonel 
Roosevelt delivered a brief speech, in which he expressed gratifica- 
tion at the honor, and insisted upon the principles of brotherhood, 
liberty and tolerance, which, he said, form the basis of regular free 
masonry throughout the world. 

In the evening he and his wife dined at the British embassy as 
the guests of Sir I. Rennell Rodd. 

The special event of April 6th, the final day of the visit to Rome, 
was a dinner given by the municipal authorities in the great hall of 



302 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

the historic Capitohne Palace, in honor of the city's guest. Mayor 
Nathan presided and many ItaHans of distinction were present. 

Mayor Nathan, in proposing the health of the ex-President, 
referred to him as " one whose character and work had an effect upon 
the civil progress of humanity. ' ' After mentioning Washington and 
Lincoln as, respectively, the founder and consolidator of the Republic, 
he characterized Mr. Roosevelt as a " purifier, " saying that he had 
hunted fiercer t easts than during his recent trip in Africa. 

" Men of his calibre, " said the Mayor, " are beyond the limits of 
country. They belong by right to civilization. " 

He concluded with an apostrophe to Mr. Roosevelt as " the 
fighting philosopher, ' ' who is preaching the word of purity, goodness 
and duty to his people, and could properly be compared with Marcus 
Aurelius, the imperial philosopher of ancient Rome. 

Mr. Roosevelt, in replying, declared that no civilized man could 
come to Rome without feeling that he was visiting the cradle of 
civilization. After expressing deep appreciation for the hospitality 
extended to him here, he spoke of political life, which he said was 
not so much a matter of genius as of the practical application of the 
very ordinary qualities of courage, honesty and common sense ; and 
the rarest of these, he added, is common sense. 

" Beware of the man who does not translate his words into 
deeds," he said. He concluded with some complimentary allusions 
to the history of Rome and to its recent remarkable progress, saying 
that he was an optimist in regard to the future. 

Late that evening Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt left Rome in a special 
train for Spezzia, where they proposed to take a carriage and spend 
a few days in a romantic excursion, traversing the same route that 
they had gone over on their honeymoon tour, twenty-four years 
before. This journey of sentiment appealed to the romantic element 
in the Italian heart; so much so, indeed, that the enthusiastic 
popular demonstrations forced the two to cut short their projected 
route and drive to Genoa a day in advance of the scheduled time. 

Seated in a landau drawn by three horses with jingling bells, 
they were diiven slowly along their honeymoon route, on the sunny 
slopes of the Ligurian Alps, admiring the superb scenery, and making 



OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 303 

brief stops at the Conti Inn and the Tre Mori Inn, near Chiavari, 
where in their former visit a heavy rain had forced them to seek 
shelter. At every village or cross-roads on the way grotips of men, 
women and children awaited them, the former with flags, the latter 
with bouquets. In some mysterious way the story of the honey- 
moon journey had reached every household in that part of Italy. 
At Ravallo, where they stopped for luncheon, the demonstrations 
became so annoying that they, as above said, cut short their journey. 

Their route had lain for sixty miles along the beautiful Riviera, 
flanked by the graceful mountains of Italy on one side and on the 
other by the Mediten-anean, with its hues of blue and purple. Near 
Sestri Levante, at a mountain pass, the party were met by an enthu- 
siastic delegation waving American and Italian flags. This escorted 
them to their hotels, where they were installed in their rooms. 
Colonel Roosevelt found to his amusement that the delegation was 
organized by the hotelkeeper, who in this way prevented the Colonel 
and his wife from going to the rival hostelry at which he had arranged 
to spend the night. 

Despite the appeal to the Italian press, the native journalists 
dogged the Colonel's steps on his trip, seeking expressions on every 
conceivable subject. While he appreciated the interest manifested, 
he wanted to go over his honeymoon route only with his wife, and 
the unwelcome attentions annoyed him. Finding his carriage fol- 
lowed by secret service agents, he directed them not to accompany 
him, showing in Italy, as elsewhere, absolute indifference to any 
possibility of danger. 

Genoa was reached on the morning of the 8th, and the travelers 
left their carriage smilingly at the thronged hotel entrance, saying 
that they had greatly enjoyed the trip, and were only sorry that the 
over-attentions of the people had compelled them to limit it. 

The place next to be visited was Porto Maurizio, where Miss 
Carew, Mrs. Roosevelt's sister, has a beautiful villa, at which they 
proposed to rest for a few days. Here a meeting had been arranged 
with Gifford Pinchot, the former chief forester of the United States, 
with the purpose of talking over the hot controversy that had arisen 
between "Pinchot and Secretary of the Interior Ballinger. 



304 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

Getting away from the curious crowds at Genoa, the travelers 
reached Porto Maurizio on the loth. Here was the most enthusiastic 
demonstration of the ItaHan visit. The citizens of that flower- 
haunted place had arranged to confer on their visitor the honor of 
citizenship and give his name to a newly opened boulevard. Never 
had there been known such a day in the history of the town. With 
its six thousand inhabitants arrayed in holiday garb, with a regiment 
of infantry in striking uniforms, school children in white and blue, 
waving American and Italian flags or strewing flowers before Mr. 
Roosevelt and his wife, it took the distinguished American to its heart. 

A mass of humanity packed the space in front of the hotel, 
lining the terraces cut deep in the mountain's side. Along the road 
on which Colonel Roosevelt was expected was stationed the 41st 
regiment of infantry, the men in dress uniforms and the officers 
ablaze with decorations. Boys from college in dark blue uniforms 
stood at attention on one side of the road leading from the hotel, 
and on the other side younger children.' Upon a terrace was sta- 
tioned a military band. 

The appearance of Colonel Roosevelt was the signal for an out- 
burst of cheers, which seemed almost to rend the throats of the 
enthusiastic spectators. The band immediately struck up "The 
Star-Spangled Banner." Huge bunches of roses were thrown into 
the landau, where Mr. Roosevelt and his wife, Miss Carew, who is 
Mrs. Roosevelt's sister, and Mayor Carrettie were sitting. 

As Roosevelt left the carriage young girls threw flowers in his 
path. He was presented by the Mayor to the Councilors of the town, 
after which he turned to a wall and watched the removal of a white 
cloth from a sign on which was painted " Viva! Teodore Roosevelt, " 
with the date. 

The cereiT 3ny was completed by the ex- President breaking 
a rope of flowers which was stretched across the road. He and his 
wife then slowly mounted the road to the hotel, passing over a huge 
bank of daisies rustling in the light breeze. The hotel, which was 
decorated with American and Italian flags, threw its doors wide open 
to its distinguished guests and the crowd of Italians who followed 
behind. 



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OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE C^SARS 305 

After some further demonstrations, tea was served, Mrs. Roose- 
velt sitting in a chair banked with flowers, with the Mayor on her 
right and Itahan Senators on her left; Mr. Roosevelt with the 
English wife of the Mayor on his right. On rising he stopped for a 
few mom.ents at a table where the Italian officers were sitting, and 
expressed his pleasure at their presence. When he left the room 
a small crowd of Americans began to sing "He's a Jolly Good Fel- 
low. ' ' Mr. Roosevelt smiled in response and gave his special thanks 
to the Glee Club. 

From the hotel the travelers proceeded to the Carew villa and 
here on the next day the much-debated interview between the ex- 
President and former chief forester of his administration took place. 

"Hello, Gilford!" was the Roosevelt greeting as the visitor ap- 
proached. Friends of old, the two shook hands warmly, and an ardent 
discussion between them began. It continued during luncheon hour 
and during a long walk over the mountains and in the olive groves, 
in the afternoon, and was resumed on the following day. What 
passed, however, remained a mystery, both parties having nothing 
to say to the anxious newspaper-men, other than that they had dealt 
largely in hunting stories and reminiscences of the past. It was 
gravely stated that the American forester was almost as good a shot 
as the African Nimrod. 

The Italian journey ended in a visit to Venice, which city of the 
sea Mr. Roosevelt and Kermit reached in the early morning of 
the 14th, Mrs. Roosevelt and Ethel remaining at the Carew villa, 
arriving at the island city at 3 o'clock in the morning, they were 
rowed through a section of the Grand Canal in the nightly gloom. 

The party entered hooded gondolas, which threaded their way 
swiftly through the narrow canals to the hotel where apartments 
had been reserved. The reflection of the street lights in the inky 
waters, the gloomy facades of beautiful palaces rising on either side 
and the quiet of the hour broken only by the melancholy cries 
of gondoliers as corners were approached, were commented upon 
by Colonel Roosevelt and his son, both of whom enjoyed the trip 
immensely. 

Reaching the hotel, the Roosevelts retired at once, but were up 
20 



3o6 OUR EX-PRESIDENT IN THE LAND OF THE CMSARS 

again at 8 o'clock, and, after breakfast, started out on a sightseeing 
tour. They visited St. Mark's Cathedral, a monument of the ancient 
magnificence of Venice, the Palace of the Doges, several museums, 
the Bridge of Sighs, and Verrocchio's statue of Bartolomeo 
CoUeoni. 

They had barely returned to the hotel when a gorgeous launch 
puffed up to its entrance, and the famous mountain-climber and 
polar voyager, the Duke of the Abruzzi, stepped out. An interview 
ensued, which lasted forty minutes. Not long afterward, at 2.20 
P. M , the ex- President and his son took train for Vienna and the 
events of the visit to Italy came to an end. 




CHAPTER XXXVI 

A Week in the Austrian Empire 

HEN, at 6.45 on the morning of April 15, the train from Venice 
drew into the railway station of Vienna, bringing as passen- 
gers the American ex- President and his son, there were few 
present to welcome them. It was a hazy morning and the people of 
the Austrian capital were apparently indifferent to the coming of 
the distinguished stranger. Only a small group of officials awaited 
him, including the Secretary of the Foreign Office, the Austrian 
Ambassador at Washington — then in Vienna — the American Am- 
bassador and a few other Americans. 

As they drove to the hotel the streets were nearly deserted and 
the passing of the party in the court can'iage attracted no attention. 
It is probable that an an-ival at that early hour was unlooked-for. 
During the day, however, a crowd of several hundred persons 
remained in front of the hotel, taking keen interest in the movements 
of the nation's guest, though they made no demonstrations beyond 
a respectful lifting of their hats. There was a marked lack of the 
enthusiasm shown elsewhere. 

The important event of the day was a call of the former Ameri- 
can President on Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of 
Hungary. This took place at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. As the 
visitor entered the courtyard the palace guard turned out and 
rendered him military honors, and as a special mark of esteem the 
aged Emperor received him in his private apartments instead of in 
the usual audience chamber. 

The American visitor was still more highly honored by the 
Emperor before the day ended, for Francis Joseph returned his call, 
visiting the hotel late in the afternoon while on his way to the 
Schoenbrunn Palace, where he stays every night. This vv^as a notable 
compliment to Colonel Roosevelt, as the aged monarch habitually 

(307) _ 



3o8 A WEEK IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE 

returns the visits only of reigning sovereigns, and of ambassadors 
upon the occasion of the presentation of their credentials. 

From the palace Colonel Roosevelt visited the Capuchin Church, 
in the vaults of which rest the bones of the Hapsburgs. As he 
entered the crypt of the Hapsburgs the Capuchin monks, who watch 
the tombs, conducted him straight to the iron wrought coffins of 
Elizabeth and Rudolph, which lie on either side of the beautiful 
statue of the Madonna presented by the Hungarian people. 

After the wreaths brought for the purpose had been deposited 
by the visitor he was shown the other tombs, among which is the 
im.mense sarcophagus containing the bodies of Maria Theresa and 
her husband, Francis I., and the plain casket of Emperor Maximilian 
of Mexico. 

From the church Colonel Roosevelt set out on a round of official 
calls, and later in the afternoon he visited the military riding school 
and also witnessed a review of the regiment of Hussars commanded 
by Prince Bronn, at Breitensee. The day closed with a formal 
dinner given by the officials of the Austrian Foreign Office, at which 
Colonel Roosevelt was the chief guest. 

The signal event of the i6th was the Emperor's dinner at the 
Imperial Palace at Schoenbrunn, this constituting the concluding 
official function of Colonel Roosevelt's visit to the Austrian capital. 
With the exception of the Americans all the guests were in full court 
uniform. Colonel Roosevelt sat at the Emperor's right and Ambassa- 
dor Kerens at his left. Throughout the dinner, which comprised 
twelve cotirses, with eight wines of rare vintages, the band of the 3 2d 
Infantry played in a gallery, principally selections from Strauss. 
The dinner occupied precisely one hour, and upon arising from, the 
table the party returned to the Mirror Room, where what is known 
as the "Cercle" followed, during which the Emperor personally 
m:ade the round of his guests. His leave-taking of the former Presi- 
dent and his son was exceedingly cordial. 

From the palace Colonel Roosevelt and Kermit drove direct 
to the imperial opera, where they occupied the court box for a short 
time, during the second act of the " Barber of Seville. ' ' The house 
was crowded in anticipation of his presence, and he was given a 



A WEEK IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE 309 

hearty reception. They drove from the opera to the American Em- 
bassy, where an informal reception to the American colony had been 
an-anged so that its members might meet the ex- President. 

An event of considerable interest, in view of what had taken 
place at Rome, was the call upon ex- President Roosevelt that day of 
Mgr. Granito di Belmonte Pignatelli, the Papal Nuncio at Vienna. 
This took place at the apartments of Ambassador Kerens, in the 
Bristol Hotel. 

The Nuncio undoubtedly realized that his visit would be in the 
nature of a public affair and construed as an indication of the aban- 
donment by the Vatican of the position taken by Cardinal Merry 
del Val. Nevertheless he decided to make the call. The Nuncio, 
in his official robes of dark purple silk and wearing a purple cap, 
entered the room. Mr. Kerens hastened to greet him, and then pre- 
sented him to Colonel Roosevelt. 

Every one in the room was deeply interested in the meeting, 
one Austrian official remarking significantly: "It is an expression 
of regret on the part of the Vatican. ' ' What passed between the 
American and the Nuncio only the former President and the Church 
dignitary know, and neither would discuss the conversation. 

On the following day the old Kingdom of Hungary was reached 
by train and here the American ex-President received a greeting in 
striking contrast to that at Vienna. Never had such an outburst 
of popular enthusiasm been seen there, the newspapers declared, since 
the days of Louis Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot. 

The journey after Colonel Roosevelt left the train at Presburg 
to spend the afternoon with Count Apponyi, whom he had entertained 
at Washington and Oyster Bay, assumed almost the character of a 
trium.phal procession, the people welcoming the visitor as the apostle 
of liberty and peace. 

At three villages, each of which was made up of a different race, 
Magyar, Slovak and German, that the party passed through on their 
automobile trip to the Apponyi castle, the village president, the priest, 
schoolmaster, fire brigade in uniform and the school children in white 
Sunday frocks and sashes, bearing the Hungarian colors, turned out 
to greet them and offer flowers and words of welcome. 



3IO A WEEK IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE 

The return trip from the castle, by another route, was marked 
by similar demonstrations, and when Budapest was reached at 9 
o'clock at night, the former President was fairly mobbed at the sta- 
tion, which, in spite of the heavy downpour of rain, was surrounded 
by thousands of Hungarians, cheering wildly. The Mayor of Buda- 
pest and representatives from all the societies in the city were there 
to meet the coming guest when he stepped on the platform, while 
hundreds of railroad men from the yards clambered on top of the 
train to take part in the demonstration. 

The university students, massed outside the building, sang 
" The Star-Spangled Banner ' ' as the ex- President was whisked away 
to his hotel through solid walls of people, who had waited patiently 
in the rain to see the distinguished American. At the hotel another 
multitude had gathered and refused to depart until Colonel Roosevelt 
appeared on the balcony to acknowledge the greetings. 

He especially pleased them when he declared that one who had 
lived as he had among the cattlemen of the great West could best 
appreciate the extraordinary character of the descendants of horse- 
men who had followed Arpad, the Magyar national hero, into the 
plains of Central Europe. 

The program fixed for the next day was a very strenuous one, 
and was gone through in part in the midst of a heavy rainstorm. 
It included a luncheon at the Royal Palace as the guest of Archduke 
Joseph, a reception at the Parliament House and a sight-seeing tour, 
which embraced a visit to the unique Agricultural Museum, built in 
imitation of the Castle of Vajda Hunyad. There Mr. Roosevelt was 
especially interested in the conservation and reforestation work of 
Hungary. 

A portion of the day was taken up with a call upon Francis 
Kossuth, leader of the United Opposition, who was ill ; a visit to the 
Washington monument, escorted by the Hungarian- American Feder- 
ation; an inspection of the studio of Zala, the Hungarian scluptor; 
a reception to the members of the American colony at the Consulate 
and a reception to the Hungarian journalists at the hotel. 

. The most interesting feature of the day was Colonel Roosevelt 's 
half -hour talk with Francis Kossuth, son of Hungary's famous patriot 



A WEEK IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE 311 

and himself an active leader in the Hungarian cause. Although 
Kossuth's name is still synonymous throughout Hungary with the 
independent aspirations of the people of Hungary in which both 
father and son have taken an active part, the son is now living quietly, 
owing to the recent fall of the independent coalition ministry, of 
which he and Count Apponyi were the leaders. 

Kossuth told Mr. Roosevelt immediately after the introduction 
that all Americans who came to Budapest had called on him because 
of the veneration in which they have held his father. 

" I am ill, as you know," he said, "but I desired to see you so 
much that if you had not come to my house I would have been con- 
veyed to yoiu- hotel on a litter. All my life I was brought up in an 
atmosphere of liberty as typified in x\merica and I have peculiar 
feelings of pleasure and sympathy toward your great country. 

After Roosevelt's departure Kossuth spoke in the highest terms 
of Mr. Roosevelt, indorsing what Count Apponyi had shortly before 
said in the historic Parliament, "That Mr. Roosevelt is one of the 
leading efficient forces for the modern improvement of the world. 
Count Apponyi further spoke of Roosevelt as typifying public honesty 
and as the champion of moral regeneration, declaring that the effects 
of his attitude were felt not only in America but throughout the 
civilized world. 

These sentiments evoked tremendous enthusiasm on the part of 
the Hungarians, who seemed to have taken Roosevelt to their hearts, 
and sought to obtain his sympathy in their struggle for independence 
from Austria. 

The following day, April 19, Roosevelt's last day in Hungary, 
fLirnished additional proof of the deep impression his personality 
had made upon the hearts of the people, high and low. The pitch of 
enthusiasm increased to the moment of his departure. Hundreds 
cheered in front of the hotel, when he left in the morning for a visit 
to the government stock farm at Babolna, where the breeding of 
Arab horses is carried on, and thousands were massed about the sta- 
tion when he returned in the evening. 

At Babolna the party were met by thirty phaetons, a half dozen 
of which were drawn by four horses and the rest by pairs of state 



312 A WEEK IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE 

horses, in which the Arab strain is predominant. Forty minutes' 
rapid driving brought the party to the large model stud farm. Lunch 
Was served and the minister of agriculture proposed Roosevelt's 
health in the Magyar language. Lunch over, the party lined along 
a long avenue and one after another more than twenty magnificent 
Btallions, chiefly pure Arabs, showed their paces. 

Then followed an inspection of the large stables, in which there 
are more than 900 horses and colts, 200 of which are pure-bred 
stallions. The most-noticed animal was a bay filly, born that day 
of a gray Arab mother, and christened Roosevelt. 

The day ended with a dinner given by the Hungarian premier, 
followed by a large reception, and at midnight the honored guest 
took the train for Paris amid the acclamations of a cheering multitude. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Our "Most Distinguished Citizen" Visits the 
Republic of France 

ON the morning of Thursday, April 21st, the train bearing the 
American ex- President from Budapest to Paris pulled into 
station at the latter city. It was Roosevelt's first visit to the 
gay French capital in twenty-four years. Then he had come un- 
noticed and unnoticed had left. Now he came again as a private 
American citizen, but no longer unnoticed. The American flag flew in 
a hundred places. In the Avenue des Champs Elysees and elsewhere 
the preparations for his entry were like those seen when an Emperor 
or a King visits Paris. So many people gathered arotmd the railway 
station that the police had to be called into duty to keep order. It 
was the welcome of the great republic of Europe to the most admired 
citizen of the great republic of America. 

Yet any sort of ceremonial reception vanished in the presence of 
the republican simplicity of the visitor. Had a formal salute been 
planned or the presentation of an address he would have upset the 
arrangements, for the train had hardly come in and the brakes been 
set, and diplomatists and others were just preparing to raise their 
hats, when a familiar figure beneath a broad, black slouch hat leaned 
far out of one of the car windows and M. Jean J. Jusserand's hand 
was clasped in a tight grasp. Jusserand had come all the way from 
Washington, where he represents France as Ambassador, to meet 
and greet the coming ex- President. 

Everybody who had even a glimpse at the window recognized the 
figure, for the inevitable eyeglasses and expansive smile were in 
evidence. After Jusserand came Mr. Bacon, the American Ambas- 
sador to France. 

"Hello, Bob," was the traveler's democratic greeting, as iiis 
hand again extended from the car window. Baron Takahira, ilie 

(313) 



314 VISITS THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE 

former Japanese Ambassador at Washington, was next hailed and 
received a specially hearty greeting, for his presence was a surprise. 

"This is delightful!" Roosevelt broke out enthusiastically; 
" but let me get out. ' ' On the platform the greetings were renewed, 
for the traveler found himself surrounded by a coterie of friends 
amid the French officials and notables. 

His first day perhaps came closer to an exemplification of the 
"simple life" than any likely to follow it while he remained in Paris. 
The visitor was given an opportunity in the miorning to rest, and took 
advantage of it to dictate many letters. Late in the afternoon, and 
still in the capacity of a private citizen, he paid visits to President 
Fallieres, at the Elysee Palace, and M. Pichon, French Minister 
of Foreign Affairs. Both these calls were returned. 

Then he called on M. Emile Loubet, and thus the only living 
retired President of France and the only living retired President of 
the United States m.et. Another call was on the sister of the late 
Edward Simmons, the American artist, for whose work he had a high 
admiration. 

Roosevelt's first real public appearance in Paris was at the 
Comddi Frangaise that evening. President Fallieres having tendered 
him the use of his private box. Every seat had been sold days in 
advance and the audience was large and brilliant. 

There had been talk of performing "Hamdet," but Mr. Roose- 
velt was anxious to see Mounet-Sully in " CEdipe Roi, " and it was 
to satisfy his wish that the Sophoclean play was substituted. This 
came second on the bill, and when the Roosevelt party entered Presi- 
dent Fallieres' box there was a cheer, accompanied by handclapping 
from the audience. Roosevelt advanced to the railing, bowled several 
tim^es and then sat down, but almost immediately the cheering was 
renewed. He arose and bowed again. The play was staged and 
acted in a way to be seen only at a French national theatre and 
Roosevelt seemed to enjoy it hugely, joining with the audience in the 
applause. 

At the end of each act, when Mounet-Sully, who played the title 
role, and the other performers responded, they advanced as is cus- 
tomary when royalty is pi'esent, bowing profoundly in the direction 



VISITS THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE 315 

of the ex-President before turning to the audience. This seemed 
only to give additional pleasure to the audience, which in turn each 
time gave a fresh round of applause. 

The Paris Temps that evening, in its editorial columns, repre- 
sented the general tone of the French press in declaring that Roose- 
velt's tour of Europe was unparalleled in history. It continued: 

"No democratic chief of state ever before enjoyed such pop- 
ularity. We are accustomed to formal visits of kings and presidents, 
but Mr. Roosevelt is no longer President. It is the man, therefore, 
not the office, which is being honored. It is his vigor, his personality, 
his character, ideas and temperament which appeal to European 
opinion. Few are more worthy of the esteem of the democracy, 
for he represents at the same time liberty and authority — those two 
antitheses which repul^licans, conscious of their duty and solicitous 
of the future, are everywhere trying to harness together. 

The program for the following day included a visit to the tomb 
of Napoleon in the Palais des Invalides and a dinner given at the 
Elysee Palace by President and Mme. Falli^res to the guest of the 
nation. The assemblage was a notable one, including many guests of 
high distinction, the dinner being served in the gorgeous Salle des 
Fetes, which is hung with priceless Gobelin tapestries. 

In proposing Roosevelt's health President Falli^res said: — 

" I cannot allow this dinner to terminate without seizing the occa- 
sion to offer a toast to Theodore Roosevelt — an illustrious man who 
is at the same time a great citizen, a great friend of France and a great 
friend of peace. I lift my glass also in honor of Mrs. Roosevelt, 
to whom goes out the homage of our respectful sympathy. I con- 
gratulate myself at being able to tell our guests how happy we are 
to receive and fete them. 

Roosevelt replied in French, saying he was profoundly touched 
by the words of President Falli^res. 

"Mrs. Roosevelt and I," he continued, "will never forget the 
welcome we have received in France, especially from you, Mr. Presi- 
dent. 

" Made to understand and love each other, our two countries have 
been friends from the beginning, and no doubt will always ren:ain 



3j6 visits the republic OF FRANCE 

jriends in the future. Every civilized man who comes to France 
earns something, because France is the cradle of modern civiliza- 
tion. Even to-day I have learned much, and one thing in particular 
which will appear in my lecture to-morrow. 

" I raise my glass in honor of the President of the Republic and 
Mme. Fallieres, whose grateful guests we are to-night. 

A reception followed the dinner to which many other notables 
of the French literary and scientific worlds and a number of promi- 
nent persons of the American colony, including William K. Vander- 
bilt, were invited to meet Colonel Roosevelt. 

Saturday, the 23d, was the great day of Roosevelt's visit to Paris. 
It was devoted to science and literature, to a visit to the French Aca- 
demy, of which he had been elected a member, and to his eagerly 
looked for oration at the Sorbonne. Paris that day fully avakened 
to the fact that it had a great man in its midst and turned out en masse 
to do honor to its guest. 

At the session of the Academy he was present merely as a mem- 
ber, taking a seat among his distinguished confreres, most of whom 
had grown old in the cause of science. But M. Boutroux, the Presi- 
dent of the Academy, took occasion to compliment him, speaking of 
him as the best exponent of American ideals and character. In his 
reply Mr. Roosevelt said: 

" I cannot express how much I have been touched by the honor 
you have paid me. It is crowning of the career of a man of letters. 

He went on to tell of how he had received the news of his election 
to the Academy, while hunting the white rhinoceros at the equator. 

" I was living among naked savages," he said, "hunting for an 
animal which was the survivor of the long-haired rhinoceros that 
existed in France when France was inhabited by naked savages. 

He continued: " I have always tried to translate into action the 
moral principles which must inspire the life of men and nations. 
There can be no economic civilization without morality. Genius is 
not essential, but only courage, honesty, sincerity and common sense. 
Men of genius without these qualities are a curse to a nation. They 
do more harm than good. ' ' 

His words, spoken in French, brought out more applause than 



VISITS THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE 317 

was often heard in that venerable hall. At the Sorbonne no attempt 
was made to restrain the demonstrations. The facade bristled with 
American and French flags, and fully 25,000 persons packed the streets 
and acclaimed Colonel Roosevelt on his aiTival. Within the buildinp^ 
enthusiasm was unbounded, the vast crowd in the amphitheatre 
interrupting again and again with storms of applause as the speaker 
defined the duties of individual citizenship in a republic, scorning the 
sluggards, cynics and idle rich, and preaching the gospel of work, 
character and the strenuous life. 

Several times he interjected observations in French, and, after 
he had defined his attitude on the subject of human rights and 
property rights, he repeated this in French, saying that it constituted 
the crux of what he had to say, and he desired every one to under- 
stand him. His words in this connection were: 

" My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a 
few words. In every civilized society property rights must be care- 
fully safeguarded. Ordinarily, and in the great majority of cases, 
human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long 
run identical. But when it clearly appears that there is a real con- 
flict between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for 
property belongs to man and not man to property. ' ' 

After the lecture Vice-Rector Liard, in behalf of the University, 
presented Mr. Roosevelt with a bust of Jefferson and two vases made 
at Sevres. But a curious mistake had been made in the bust. A bust 
of Lincoln had been ordered from the Government factory at Sevres, 
but in some unaccountable way one of Jefferson was manufactured. 
M. Jusserand, the French Ambassador, arranged to have the original 
order executed. 

The following day, Sunday, was spent quietly, Mr. Roosevelt 
attending service in the American church in the Rue de Berri. The 
general elections of France were held that day, but he did not visit 
any of the voting booths, saying that he supposed the voting machin- 
ery in France was much like that in the United States, 

Monday was distinctively Paris day in the Roosevelt visit. He 
was taken that day as the guest of the city in distinction from the 
French Republic and was entertained at a formal luncheon in the 



3i8 VISITS THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE 

Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, distinguished officials saying compli- 
mentary things in his honor, to which he replied in a manner that 
charmed his hosts. 

The building was hung with French and American flags, the 
vestibules and imposing grand staircase were beautifully decorated 
with potted plants and flowers, and the guest was escorted to the 
council chamber through lines of brilliantly uniformed republican 
guards. As he entered the chamber he was given a great ovation, 
both from the floor and from the galleries, which were crowded with 
women. M. Lepine, prefect of police, made complimentary remarks, 
speaking in praise of Paris and ending with, " Its heart goes straight 
out to the man you are. 

In answering, the guest gratefully remarked, "You make of 
me an ideal which I can only try to realize in the future. 

His reception that night at the Opera, where a gala perform- 
ance of " Samson and Delilah ' ' had been arranged in his honor, was the 
remarkable spontaneovis tribute of a brilliant assembly to a man after 
the true Parisian heart. " Salome ' ' had been originally selected, but 
the ex-President requested the change to "Samson." 

It was at the end of the first act when Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt, 
accompanied by Ambassador and Mrs. Bacon, arrived at the opera 
house. As the lights went up, revealing the ex-President and his 
party in President Falli^res' box, the whole house rose to its feet, 
cheering wildly for two minutes, Mr. Roosevelt came to the front of 
the box, bowing and smiling, and raised a perfect tempest when, 
noticing his daughter Ethel sitting in the stalls with a friend, he threw 
her a kiss. 

We must deal rapidly with the remainder of his stay in Paris. 
The 26th was a busy day. He rose early, took a brisk walk in the 
Luxembourg Gardens, and lunched in a fashionable Bois de Boulogne 
restaurant, where he delighted his companions with a series of racy 
hunting stories. 

In the afternoon he was the guest of the Aero Club and had his 
first view of an aeroplane flight. He protested against anyone going 
up in the high wind prevailing simply to amuse him, but Emile 
Dubonnet essayed a flight and had a narrow escape from injury. 



VISITS THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE 319 

The guest was deeply interested in every detail of the start, and 
pressed forward as the machine left the ground. But it had gone 
hardly 150 yards, when it swept down, almost capsizing as it struck 
the ground. One of the wings was broken, but Dubonnet was not 
hurt. Col. Roosevelt rushed forward and offered him his hearty 
congratulations. 

In the evening a dinner was given by Ambassador and Mrs. 
Bacon in honor of the city's guests, at which a number of prominent 
Parisians were present. 

The event of the final day in Paris was a military display given 
in the forest at Vincennes in honor of the visitor. Five thousand 
troops fought a sham battle, and then passed in review before Colonel 
Roosevelt, who watched them with critical eye. He almost sprang 
from his saddle in excitement when, for the finale, two regiments 
of cavalry swept forward in a magnificent charge. 

He visited Versailles in the afternoon, motoring along the beauti- 
ful lakes, then admiring the battle canvases in the palace. But the 
famous fountains of Neptune and the Dragon in the grounds did not 
play for his entertainment. It costs $5,000 to show them at their 
greatest beauty — too much money to spend to make a holiday even 
for Roosevelt. 

In a subsequent visit to the Salon, with Rodin, the sculptor, 
he inspected the sculptures made by George Gray Barnard for the 
Pennsylvania Capitol building, and heartily felicitated the artist on 
his work, which Rodin said could not be excelled. The day ended with 
a dinner at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it being the final honor 
conferred by France on its visitor, since he was to leave for Brussels 
early the next morning. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Roosevelt in Holland, the Home of His Ancestors 

A GROUP of French and American notables and a large throng 
of Parisian people gathered at the station to bid the Roosevelt 
party a hearty farewell, as they took the train for Brussels 
at the Gare du Nord, on the morning of April 28th. With a hearty 
hand-clasp to the government officials and an expression of regret 
that he could not stay longer in their beautiful city, Colonel Roose- 
velt left Paris for the next stage on his spin through Europe. He was 
headed now for Holland, his ancestral land, but was booked to halt 
a day in Belgium and enjoy its hospitality on the route. 

Brussels, the Belgian capital, was reached at noon, a military 
band playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the throng of people 
cheering as the train drew into the station, and the traveler, hat in 
hand, hurried to the waiting royal automobile. Profuse decorations 
on the public buildings gave a gala aspect to the city boulevards, 
which were filled with people as the auto passed rapidly through 
them to the buildings of the Exposition, where King Albert awaited 
his guest and where the visitor had agi-eed to deliver an address. 
The meeting with the King was a very cordial one, the monarch and 
ex- President entering in company the exposition hall, which was 
crowded Ijy a large audience gathered to hear the promised brief 
oration. A roar of applause greeted the distinguished guest as 
he appeared, drowning the voice of Mr. Wiart, President of the 
Exposition, in his attempt to introduce the orator to the audi- 
ence. Some time elapsed before he could make his complimentary 
words heard. 

Mr. Roosevelt's address, which continued about twenty 
minutes, was in the same vein as his Sorbonne lecture, covering the 
modern problems of civiHzation, He insisted upon the necessity of 

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i'HKOlM.KK ROOSEVELT ELECTRIFYING THE BRITISH EMI'IRE WITH HIS 
RE^L\RKABLE SPEECH AT THE GUILDHALL, LONDON 
SnoakinK at tlio (Juildliall. after receiving the lionorary freedom of the City of 
London Ml Roosevelt expressed himself with remarkable frankness on certain aspects of 
B?rtlh\".le. Notably hrdealt with England's position in ^^jSTPt, saymg amo^^^^^ 
things: "The present condition of affairs in Egypt is a grave menace to both your 
empire and to civilization. ... Of all broken reeds, spp/im/'ita '^j;^ '^ J J^ ™°^* 
broken reed on which righteousness can lean. . . .Now. <;'tl»er you ha%e the rignt 
to be In Egvpt or you have not : either It is or it is not your duty to estal)lish and keep 
order. If vou feel that vou have not the right to be in Egypt if you__do not wish to 
establish and keep order there, why, then, by all means get out ol H-gypi. 



ROOSEVELT IN IfOLLAND 321 

the development of the ordinary quahties, work, honesty and mor- 
ality. Speaking of leadership, he asserted that a great genius might 
become a great enemy of the people. "Woe to the country," he 
exclaimed, " which puts its trust in a genius of military or other type, 
rather than in the high average character of the ordinary citizen. ' ' 

Referring to Belgium in his remarks, he said : 

" It has always seemed to me that the Belgian people offer one 
of the greatest examples of hope presented by any people of the 
world at the end of the nineteenth century. There has been much 
talk of decadence of race, but Belgium proves that a great past is not 
incompatible with a great present and a great future. Flanders was 
one of the greatest industrial centres of the middle ages. Now you 
are rivalling and surpassing the work of your ancestors. 

He closed with the following words, addressing himself to the 
King, who sat immediately before him : 

" I congratulate you that, at the outset of a new reign, which I 
am sure will be fraught with all possible benefits, there should come 
as a herald and augury of triumph in the future this great demon- 
stration [the Exposition] of the extraordinary activities and abilities 
of the Belgian people. " 

After the address the King escorted his visitor through the 
grounds, chatting with in him excellent English and in tones loud 
enough to be audible to all around. The youthful Belgian monarch, 
who was dressed in a general's uniform, is tall and muscular, his 
more than six feet of height towering above the shorter figure of hi? 
guest. One thing in particular attracted Roosevelt's attention, the 
fact that there was no American building and few exhibits from the 
United States, and he expressed his regrets at the omission. 

From the grounds the pair rode to the country palace at Lacken, 
the King pointing out on the way the handsome palace grcands and 
the famous conservatory. Mrs. Roosevelt, with Ethel ?md Kermit, 
subsequently arrived, they having been invited to dine at the royal 
table. Black was worn at the dinner, the court being still in semi- 
mourning for the late King Leopold. Both during and after the 
dinner the King and Queen devoted almost theii- entire attention to 
their American guests. The others present included the members 
n 



322 ROOSEVELT IN HOLLAND 

of the royal family, the Cabinet Ministers and high officials attached 
to the King's military and civil household, a few members of the 
Belgian nobility, the American Minister, Charles Page Bryan, and 
several eminent scholars. 

Returning to Brussels, Mr. Roosevelt was the guest at the 
Mayor's reception in the Hotel de Ville. It was a brilliant affair, 
altogether transcending the reception at the American Legation in 
the afternoon, at which Minister Charles Page Bryan gave the 
Brussels sm.art set an opportunity to meet the visitor. There was to 
have been luncheon at the legation, but it had to be omitted because 
a baggage mixup had made Mr. Roosevelt arrive an hour behind the 
appointed tim.e. 

More than two thousand persons were present at the reception. 
The square was brilliantly illmriinated, and when the ex- President 
arrived a procession was formed, headed by Burgomaster Max, who 
escorted Mrs. Roosevelt. From the grounds the party passed 
through the beautifully decorated salons of the historic building, 
being saluted on all sides. With this reception ended the brief but 
busy visit to Belgium, the party being booked to start for Holland 
at 7 o'clock the next morning. 

The journey through the Netherlands on the following day was 
such as to suggest the idea that the Roosevelts were returning to 
their old home after a long absence and were being welcomed by their 
compatriots on their return. At every station crowds were met, 
cheering and clamoring for a speech. Mr. Roosevelt responded by 
bowing and waving his hand, occasionally with a few words. Thus 
at Hertogenbosch he greatly pleased his auditors by saying: "I 
am visiting the country from which my ancestors came three cen- 
turies ago." 

A special train sent by Queen Wilhelmina awaited the party at 
the frontier station of Roosendaal, taking them to Arnhem, where 
automobiles waited to convey them to the palace at Heb Loo, a royal 
castle nearly eighty miles west of the Hague. Here they received 
a warm welcome from the Queen and Prince Henry, the greeting 
being so cordial as to seem a greeting of personal friends. 

Luncheon was served shortly after their arrival. Colonel 



ROOSEVELT IN HOLLAND 323 

Roosevelt sat at the right of Queen Wilhelmina and Mrs. Roosevelt 
at the right of Prince Henry. There were thirty distinguished guests 
at the luncheon, all of whom were high court officials, but not mem- 
bers of the cabinet. 

The affair was in every way intimate. Mr. Roosevelt and his 
wife expressed a desire to see the little Princess Juliana, who has 
now cut her eighth tooth, but Queen Wilhelmina said that she was 
sorry but could not show the baby, as she had been vaccinated 
that day. 

After the luncheon at the palace the guests were conveyed in 
royal carriages to Arnhem, escorted by the grand marshal of the 
com-t, and departed on the 3.38 train for Amsterdam. 

During this brief stay in Amsterdam a public meeting was held 
in the Free Church of Weteringshaus and an audience of about 
eight hundred persons, which filled the church, was briefly addressed 
by the visitor. Among the figures in the stained glass windows of 
the edifice were those of Emerson and Carlyle. 

"I am glad to come back to the home of my forefathers," 
Colonel Roosevelt began. " I am proud of the fact that I have good 
Dutch blood in my veins. My people left here before Rembrandt 
and De Ruyter were known. 

" I am sorry that I cannot speak the Dutch my grandparents 
taught me. One cradle song I still remember. 

Here Colonel Roosevelt recited a lullaby, a quaint old verse in 
which geese figured, to the delight of his hearers. 

His address was on his favorite subject of good citizenship and 
he praised Holland for the sturdy qualities which its people had main- 
tained for centuries. His brief speech was followed by a dinner given 
by the municipality of Amsterdam. 

The following day was one of much activity in sight-seeing by 
the visitors and of enthusiasm on the part of the usually staid Hol- 
landers. Groups of singers, marching through the square on which 
the apartments of the American visitors were located, serenaded him 
and later he was cheered when he appeared on the streets, wearing 
a daisy in the lapel of his coat, the name flower of the little Princess 
Juliana, whose birthday was being celebrated. 



324 ROOSEVELT IN HOLLAND 

In the afternoon the Roosevelt party went by automobile to 
Delft, where they visited the tombs of Hugo Grotius, statesman and 
scholar, and Vv'illiam the Silent in the Nieuwe Kerk. They were 
received there by the Burgomaster, who, in behalf of the municipality, 
presented the ex-President with a beautiful Delft plate, with the 
portrait of WiUiam of Orange. 

They then visited the Prinsenhoff , to which a melancholy celeb- 
rity attaches, as the scene of the death of WilHam of Orange, the 
Silent, the founder of Dutch independence, who was assassinated 
there on July lo, 1584. The bullet holes in the stairs were pointed 
out to the Americans. 

The party returned to the Hague, and the Burgomaster, Baron 
de Landas, and two members of the council, caUed to present the 
compliments of the city and an address. 

In the evening they were the guests of honor at a dinner given 
by the American minister, at which a distinguished company was 
present. It was followed by a reception for the American colony. 
This closed an active day, in which the people had everywhere mani- 
fested the greatest degree of interest in the famous visitor. 

The popular demonstrations at the Hague and at other places 
visited by ex- President Roosevelt were commented on that day by a 
prominent diplomatist, who said: 

"This welcome to Mr. Roosevelt is more than personal. It is 
because the people unconsciously, or half consciously, see in Mr. 
Roosevelt the representative of democracy, of the principles of liberty 
without excess of full self-government, without permitting any citi- 
zen either by wealth or position to take away any right from another. 

" We have had doubt in Europe as to whether the United States 
really has found the right form of government. Some of these doubts 
remain, but the demonstrations by the people here to-day show that 
they believe the American people have attained, or are attaining, 
those aims for which they have striven. They are honoring the 
idealism of America, which is far ahead on the path which America 
is following. 

" I do not think that this country or the other European coun- 
tries are doing all the things which have been done for an individual, 



ROOSEVELT IN HOLLAND 325 

but for Mr. Roosevelt as the deputy of what they beheve 
America is. " 

To this sentiment Roosevelt heartily agreed, saying that the 
extravagant enthusiasm tvas not inspired by him as a person, but was 
rather a glowing tribute to the country which he represented. De- 
spite this opinion, however, the fact was evident that his own per- 
sonality and record as a statesman of world-wide prominence had 
much to do with the extraordinary warmth of his reception. 

May ist, the last day of the stay in Holland, was spent in a visit 
to the national tulip show then in full tide at Haarlem. It was 
becoming evident, however, that, despite his phenomenal power 
of endurance, the strain of his frenzied dash through Europe had 
begun to tell on the hardy American. He admitted as much by 
wiring to Copenhagen, his next place of call, requesting that the 
program of ceremonies in his honor he cut down. Similar requests 
were sent to Christiania, Stockholm and Berlin. The pace was one 
that could not much longer be kept up. 

The ride from the Hague to Haai lem was a delightful one. It 
was accomplished by automobile, both sides of the road being made 
a carnival of splendor by hundreds of acres of blooming tulips and 
other bright spring flowers. Mr. Roosevelt insisted that they should 
go slow that he might not miss anything in the wondrous floral 
scenes that stretched away on all sides. 

On reaching the exhibition buildings at Haarlem, the party were 
received at the entrance by the directors of the tulip show, M. Kre- 
lage, the president, saying to Mr. Roosevelt that his coming completed 
the list of one hundred thousand visitors; "a figure," he added, 
"which may not impress an American, but of which Bulbland is proud. " 

He then presented the visitor with a silver model of the Half 
Moon, saying, " You may call it the Half Moon or the Mayflower, just 
as you like. ' ' 

In a brief address M. Krelage described the exhibition and the 
tulip industry, pointing out that Holland shipped to America 
8,200,000 pounds of bulbs yearly. 

In replying Roosevelt said: 

" Americans always are especially struck in Holland by the way 



326 ROOSEVELT IN HOLLAND 

in which you, one of the hardest-working peoples, contrive to add 
beauty and enjoyment to your hves. We in America have in the past 
had to work so hard that we have not always been able to pay as 
much attention as you to the things that tend for enjoyment, and, if 
one of the other must be sacrificed, we think that enjoyment should 
be sacrificed to work, but more and more we are growing to realize 
that beauty and enjoyment can be combined with work. Americans 
come here to see how you are able to combine them. ' ' 

After an inspection of the wonderful gardens, the party partook 
of luncheon and paid a visit to the fine gallery of the town hall, groups 
of girls pelting them with flowers at the entrance. Here Roosevelt 
signed his name in the Golden Book. 

From Haarlem the automobiles carried them to Amsterdam. 
They were received by the Burgomaster at the Ryks Museum, an im- 
posing building, covering nearly three acres of ground. Probably 
5,000 persons were waiting in the public square and set up a hearty 
cheer on the aiTival of the American visitors. 

Director Van Riemsdyk conducted the American ex- President 
through the museum, pointing out the most important art treasures. 
He left him alone in the Rembrandt room, where the m.aster's largest 
and most celebrated work, "Night Watch," painted in 1642, hangs, 
and where he spent a considerable time in studying this much ad- 
mired painting. 

After dining with Secretary Hibben the Roosevelt party pro- 
ceeded to the train, which left at 9 o'clock for Copenhagen. 




CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Roosevelt Welcomed by the Scandinavians 

ENMARK was the first of the Scandinavian Kingdoms to be 
visited by the American ex- President in his European tour. 
Here he was to spend two days before proceeding to Norway 
and Sweden, the remaining Kingdoms of ancient Scandinavia. The 
train from Amsterdam landed the Roosevelts at the German port 
of Kiel, where a steamer awaited to convey them to the Danish port 
of Korsoer, whence they were to travel by train across Zealand to 
Copenhagen, sixty- nine miles away. 

As the little steamer came up the bay flying the American flag, 
the officers and men of the German war ships anchored in the road- 
stead stood at salute. Mr. Roosevelt was on the bridge with the 
captain, and many glasses were trained on him from the craft in the 
harbor. His attention was called to the Imperial yacht Meteor, 
lying at the pier of the Kiel Yacht Club, which was christened by his 
daughter Alice, now Mrs. Nicholas Longworth. He was much 
interested when there was pointed out to him alongside the pier 
a small steam yacht named in honor of his daughter the Alice Roose- 
velt, and employed by the Danish admiralty. 

On reaching the station at Copenhagen Mr. Roosevelt found 
the Crown Prince Christian waiting to receive him, King Frederick 
being absent on a visit to the Riviera, which he had arranged before 
knowing that the American ex-President would spend a day in his 
capital. 

Thousands of people were on the streets and station as the trav- 
elers landed. Mr. Roosevelt acknowledged their greetings by lifting 
his hat with one hand, while with the other he grasped the arm of the 
Crown Prince, saying in his impulsive manner: 

" I am very pleased to meet you — very indeed Come along 
while I tell you about my baggage. " 

(327) 



328 ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 

The Prince, somewhat taken aback by this very democratic 
greeting, yielded to his energetic guest and was led along by the arm, 
while Roosevelt explained that he had nothing to wear except the 
clothes in which he was clad, because all the luggage had been sent by 
a train which would not arrive till two hours later. 

Prince Christian assumed to enter into the spirit of the situation 
heartily, but he was obviously perturbed as they rode in the royal 
carriage with scarlet caparisoned flunkeys, bowing continuously to 
the populace, who looked askance at the negligee traveling attire of the 
man who sat with head erect and chest expanded beside their future 
King. 

It is an amusing coincidence that King Edward had found himself 
in the same predicament when visiting Copenhagen three years 
before, his luggage, like that of Mr. Roosevelt, failing to arrive in 
good time. Perhaps this informality had something to do with the 
silence of the people, who failed to cheer as their prince and his guest 
rode through the streets. Or perhaps this was a characteristic of 
Danish social etiquette. 

However that be, the baggage tragedy was responsible for a 
situation perhaps unprecedented in Danish court proceedings, to 
which Prince Christian contributed by suggesting that Mr. Roosevelt 
and his family dine at the palace wearing the clothes they had trav- 
eled in. So the Copenhagen Court, celebrated for its compliance with 
the strictest ceremonials, was the scene that evening of a royal dinner 
to which the Prince and his guests sat down in business and street 
attire. Another incident, similarly new in Denmark, was the fact 
that the Stars and Stripes floated that day for the first time above 
the royal palace of Denmark. 

Prince Christian, presiding as the King's representative, thanked 
Mr. Roosevelt for coming to the court of Denmark and proposed his 
health, which was heartily responded to by those around the table, 
who included the leading personages in the kingdom, in court, parlia- 
mentary and scholarly life. 

The guest, in reply, said he had received a cordial message from 
the King and thanked the Prince for his hospitality. He then pro- 
posed a toast to the King and the royal family of Denmark. 



ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDLWAVIANS 329 

At a later hour Mr. Roosevelt attended a reception given by 
Maurice F. Egan, the American Minister, at the legation, at which he 
met the diplomatic representatives, the Cabinet ministers and many 
persons prominent in the various departments of public activity. 
By this tim.e the missing baggage had made its appearance and the 
informally clad traveler was able to array himself in the conven- 
tional evening- attire. 

Sleeping that night in a royal bed, the weary traveler rose at a 
late hour for hirn on the following morning. The principal feature of 
that day's sight-seeing was a m.otor ride to Elsinore (Helsingoer) for 
the purpose of visiting the famous castle in which the scene of the 
tragedy of "Hamlet" is laid. As he walked along the ramparts, 
tracing the footsteps of the ghost of Hamlet's father, the American 
visitor repeated with much unction the words of the anguished tra- 
gedy prince: "Perchance 'twill walk again! I'll speak to it though 
hell itself should gape and bid me hold my peace ! ' ' 

Whether or not he had any modern spectre in mind, the ghost 
of any defunct political situation or coming trouble, when he spoke 
these words, we cannot say, but Mr. Roosevelt, at any rate found 
much to interest him in the famous old castle. He listened intently 
when told the local tradition, probably without foundation, that 
Shakespeare had visited Elsinore with a party of players and that the 
idea of Hamlet came to him there. Mr. Roosevelt was told, too, that 
Guildenstern, whom Shakespeare made a courtier at the Danish court, 
actually lived at Elsinore, and, having met Shakespeare there, visited 
him in England. 

On the way to Elsinore a stop was made at the seventeenth cen- 
tury castle of Fredericksborg. In the party were Mr. Egan, the 
American Minister, and his wife and daughter, and Admiral de 
Richelieu, representing the King. After inspecting the castle, a 
perfect example of Dutch renaissance architecture, the party visited 
the Almshouse, which is established in an ancient Carmelite mon- 
astery, recently restored. Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt rejoiced with 
gifts the hearts of the old women living in the cells where had dwelt 
in solitude the monks of old. 

On leaving Elsinore the party boarded a steamer for a trip 
K 



330 ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 

through the Oresund, the sound that separates Denmark from Sweden. 
The officers of a Danish warship, at anchor and flying flags at all her 
yards, saluted Mr. Roosevelt, who stood on the steamer's bridge like 
an admiral reviewing his fleet. An elaborate luncheon was served 
on board, at which Admiral de Richelieu officially told the guest of 
honor how delighted Denmark was to see him. In replying, he 
remarked that the Danish- Americans were mighty good citizens. 

Two plaques, especially designed for him, one picturing an ele- 
phant, the other a rhinoceros, were presented to Mr. Roosevelt ; also 
two loving cups with silver tops. All were of royal porcelain and 
were designed by Michelsen, a famous Danish artist. 

He accepted the plaqties graciously, but while examining the 
figure of an elephant looked up suddenly and said with a smile : " This 
is not an African elephant. " 

" That is quite true," replied the manager. " These plates were 
made especially. We have no study of African elephants, and so 
used Asiatic. ' ' 

The incident caused much amusement, which was added to by 
the remark, " I am glad to have all kinds of elephants. " 

The day ended in a visit of the Crown Prince and Princess to 
the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt, where they bade good 
bye to their guests before they left the palace to attend a formal 
dinner given them at the City Hall, preparatory to their departure 
for Christiania. It was a brilliant affair, the Lord Mayor presiding, 
and all the members of the Cabinet, with 250 of the leading men of 
the city being present. The Mayor proposed the health of the guest 
of honor in admirable English, and the company cheered enthu- 
siastically as he concluded, "Long live Roosevelt!" 

Mr. Roosevelt, in responding, touched upon the similarity of the 
problems confronting all free countries. The dinner was given at 
six o'clock that he might have time to take the 9.30 train on his 
departure for Norway. 

The honors which Colonel Roosevelt had received in other 
countries had been repeated and in some respects surpassed in 
Norway. On the journey from the coast to the capital the conductor 
of the train wore a broad leather belt, bearing the arms of Norway, 



ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 331 

an article of official dignity reserved for use when royalty travels. 
There were frequent demonstrations on the way, the school-children 
being given a part holiday that they might see the distinguished 
American. 

The train stopped at a few stations and steamed slowly past 
others. In every instance children crowded the station platform 
and, waving their hats and handkerchiefs, gave a variety of school 
yells. Mr. Roosevelt never failed to acknowledge the salutations. 
When his breakfast was interrupted by a chorus from the outside he 
waved his napkin in the best of good humor. 

There was a large gathering at Moss, where a stop was made. 
Boys from the high school gave nine short cheers, which drew Mr. 
Roosevelt to an open window of the car. 

" That sounds like an American college yell, " he said. " I wish 
you and the grown-ups good luck. " 

The boys cheered again as the train drew out of the station. 

"They probably did not understand a word of what he said," 
remarked a member of the Roosevelt party. 

" Oh, yes, " replied Minister Hagerup, " I doubt if any one failed 
to understand because English is thoroughly taught in our schools. " 

The train continued to Christiania without further incident of 
note, arriving here shortly after i o'clock. 

Here the traveler was especially honored, the city, which had 
been in mourning the day before for the great poet and novelist 
Bjornson, being now a blaze of decoration in which the American 
red, white and blue was given precedence, while King Haakon and 
Queen Maud honored their guest by going in person to the station 
to greet him on his arrival. 

The platform of the station was covered with a red carpet, and 
inside the building a temporary stand had been erected for the 
receiving party. This was occupied by the King and Queen, with a 
large suite, all of the members of the Cabinet, members of Parliament, 
city and State officials, professors of the university and other persons 
of distinction. 

As the train drew in and Roosevelt stepped down the King 
crossed ^^e^ platform and. without waiting for an introduction, shook 



332 ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 

hands warmly with the former President. He then presented 
Roosevelt to the Queen and the visitor in turn presented Mrs. Roose- 
velt, Miss Ethel and Kermit to their Majesties. 

From the station the royal carriage drove through the principal 
streets, which were lined on both sides with continuous archways of 
poles loaded with festoons, and with men, women and children, all 
with tiny American flags in their buttonholes. All residences and 
stores were decorated. Thus acclaimed, Mr. Roosevelt proceeded to 
the palace, where he, as well as his family, was provided with apart- 
ments hitherto sacred to royal guests. 

The King and Queen showed Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt the 
little Prince Olaf that afternoon, and Roosevelt, who had been telling 
anecedotes about Seth Bullock, said: 

" I wish Seth Bullock were here to see your small Olaf. He 
would be delighted with him. 

Later, while the ex-President was in his room arranging his 
papers and dictating letters, the King came in quite informally and 
asked: " Wouldn't you like to have a cup of tea. " 

" By George, I would, " replied the guest. The King rang, and 
for more than an hour the two sat drinking tea and talking on a 
variety of subjects. The King asked many questions and presented 
many of his opinions on matters relating to the United States. 

The day ended with a dinner at the palace at which many of 
the most eminent persons in Norway were present. Four State 
chairs were placed at the principal table, and while the remainder of 
the company stood at their places, the King appeared with Mrs. 
Roosevelt on his arm. Colonel Roosevelt following with the Queen. 

During the dinner King Haakon, after some graceful remarks 
devoted to the friendly relations between the United States and 
Norway, drank the health of his guests, to which Roosevelt fittingly 
responded, saying: 

" It is a particular pleasure for me to be in Norway, and I have 
been deeply impressed with my generous reception. Norwegians 
have made such good citizens of the United States that I once 
remarked to a group of traveling Norwegians that I rather grudged 
it that they had left anybody in Norway. 



ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVLANS 2,oi 

'" As your Majesty has said, the Norwegians in America love the 
land of their birth and they love the country of their adoption. A 
man can love his wife all the better if he loves his mother a great 
deal" 

Colonel Roosevelt touched on Norse literature, and spoke of his 
pleasure when, as President, he was able to cable his good wishes to 
a new Norwegian King bearing the old name of Haakon. " And, ' ' he 
continued, "it is a fine thing for the country that Haakon and Olaf 
should be the names borne by the ruler of to-day and the ruler of 
to-morrow. ' ' 

He turned directly to the King and Queen, and said : 

" I hope that their Majesties, who seem to do all things well, will 
see to it that the small Olaf knows the Heimskringla thoroughly. 
I drink with my whole heart to the health of your Majesties. " It is 
well to state here that the work mentioned is the traditional history 
of old Norway, written seven centuries ago. 

The chief event of the following day. May 5th, was the address 
which Mr. Roosevelt had engaged to deliver before the Nobel Prize 
Committee, in recognition of the award to him, some years before, of 
the valued peace prize. The lecture, in consonance with this fact, 
was on "International Peace," and presented the ripened views of 
the speaker on this important topic. It was delivered in the National 
Theatre, which was crowded with an audience of two thousand 
persons. Unfortvmately, the frequent use of his voice in speech- 
making and conversation had affected the vocal chords of the lec- 
turer, and for the first time in his career his voice gave way, failing as 
he went on until his words sank almost to a whisper and were lost by 
nearly all the audience. 

As for the address itself, its text is given in a later chapter, and 
it must suffice to say here that its significant feature was the striking 
suggestion that the Great Powers should unite in a League of Peace, 
with force and authority to dominate any nation that sought to 
engage in unjustifiable war. 

The following day was signalized by the University of Norway 
conferring upon ex-President Roosevelt the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy. 



334 ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 

The occasion was delightfully infonxial. Students filled the 
gallery of the university's theatre and sang "The Star-Spangled 
Banner. ' ' The rector briefly but warmly welcomed Mr. Roosevelt 
and then gave place in the tribunal to the Dean of the Faculty of 
Philosophy, who made a speech, half serious, half humorous, which 
pleased immensely the King and his guest. 

The witty speaker suggestively compared Mr. Roosevelt to an 
engine always under a full head of steam and raising a cloud of politi- 
cal smoke and dust through which it was hard to discern the man 
himself. So some persons thought they got a glimpse of an angel 
with a halo, while others were certain they caught sight, through the 
cloud, of a modern devil. But when the dust and smoke settled all 
saw Roosevelt booming ahead on a straight track; one of the most 
vigorous and progressive teachers of mankind to-day 

Again the Dean spoke of Roosevelt as a giant, sitting on high 
Olympus, with Jupiter, Apollo and the other deities. He might not 
like to be drawn back to earth, but it was necessary so to do that the 
highest academiic honor Norway could confer might be given to him. 

Then the speaker turned to Mr. Roosevelt's literary work, some 
of which he had read, plainly, if only for the occasion. He said the 
former President's fame as a writer would not be undying but that 
his " Winning of the West ' ' justified the degree which the university 
was about to give him, for it was the result of original research. He 
agreed with others that Mr. Roosevelt was a man who had learned to 
use the capacities and powers which in most men lie dormant. He 
had converted his capacities into energies. 

In reply Roosevelt said that it did not m.ake much difference 
what capacities a man had. It was important, rather, what he did 
with them. The thing was to get the job done. The King laughed, 
when he concluded : 

" If recognition comes for what you do, good; if recognition does 
not come" — here the speaker paused — "it isn't quite so good. " 

King Haakon and his guest spent a part of the morning talking 
before an open fire in the palace, while the rain fell and a cold wind 
blew outside. 

During the afternoon a drive of observation was taken about the 



ROOSEVELT WELCOMED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS 335 

capital, the King and Queen pointing out its features of interest to 
their guests. This was the concluding event of the visit, as the 
Roosevelt party were to take a special train for Stockholm that 
evening. As, at a later hour, the train drew out with its distin- 
guished passengers, a cheering crowd at the station wished them a 
safe and happy journey. 

At Stockholm, which was reached in the morning of the 8th, the 
American ex- President learned of King Edward's sudden death. 
Queen Maud of Norway, a daughter of King Edward, had talked to 
him with distress of the threatening state of her father's health, and 
his unexpected demise was disquieting. One effect it had was to 
disturb the plans for his visits to Berlin and London, intended festivi- 
ties being negatived by the fact that the Emperor William of Ger- 
many was a near relative of the deceased King. The condition of 
his throat also obliged Roosevelt to keep in his rooms during nearly 
all his stay in Sweden, he being under the care of a throat specialist. 

King Gustave of Sweden was absent in the South of France, but 
the Crown Prince and Princess did their utmost to make the visit of 
their guests an agreeable one. 

In the afternoon the Prince and Princess accompanied their 
guests to the several museums of the city, and entertained them with 
a horse-jumping military drill, and in the evening a dinner was given 
by the citizens of Stockholm to their distinguished visitor. The 
news of the death of King Edward put an end to every other of the 
projected festivities, the proposed state dinner being abandoned and 
the court going into mourning. 

Once only during the day did the invalided guest leave his 
rooms, he being strictly under the doctor's care and his throat in a 
serious condition. He took lunch with Charles H. Graves, the 
American Minister, meeting there Hedin and Nordenskjold, the 
explorers, and other noted persons. His intended speech at the 
National Museum had to be given up, but an immense throng, many 
thousands in number, had gathered in the adjoining spaces and 
cheered him most lustily. Aside from this the visit to Stockholm 
was passed largely in seclusion, the Prince and Princess doing their 
utmost to make it a pleasant one to the guest. In the morning of 
the following day the Roosevelt party set out for BerHn. 




CHAPTER XL. 

Emperor William of Germany Greets Ex- 
President Roosevelt 

UCH interest had been taken in the visit of ex-President Roose- 
velt to Berhn. The understanding was that the war-lord 
of Germany, regardless of courtly precedent, would meet his 
distinguished guest at the station, hail him as a brother spirit, and 
perhaps embrace and kiss him on both cheeks in German imperial 
fashion in receiving royalty. 

If anything of the kind was in view it failed to materialize. The 
sudden death of King Edward of England had put the court of his 
nephew William in mourning, and etiquette stood in the way of any 
such public reception. The Emperor therefore remained at Potsdam, 
sending Herr Von Schoen, his Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to meet 
his coming guest. The Roosevelt party reached Berlin on the 
morning of May loth. The official party was at the station to greet 
them, but, from a misunderstanding as to the time the train would 
arrive, Dr. Hill, the American Ambassador, failed to reach there 
soon enough, as also the royal carriages sent for the use of the party. 
The result was that they had to drive in ordinary vehicles to the 
embassy building which they had decided to make their head- 
quarters during their stay in Berlin. 

In the afternoon the Roosevelt party proceeded to Potsdam, 
accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Hill, and the much debated meeting 
of the "strenuous ones" took place — the American Jupiter and the 
German Mars. The scene was the New Palace at Potsdam, the 
historic mansion of Frederick the Great; the spot the marble steps 
of this palatial edifice. There stood the Kaiser, clad in the pictur- 
esque white uniform of the Garde du Corps, and wearing a helmet 
crowned with a shimmering white eagle. He looked the war-lord of 
photographic reproduction as the democratically-attired American 
ascended the palace steps with his vigorous stride. 

(336) 



EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ssj 

Nothing exploded. A meeting, a vigorous hand-shake, lasting 
nearly a full minute, beamiing smiles on both faces, the warmest show 
of cordiality, and the encounter of the two chief exponents of the 
strenuous life passed into history. For years they had admired and ^^ 
craved to meet each other and the moment of fruition had finally 
come. It was evidently one of delight. 

The meeting was followed by an entrance into the hall and the 
ceremonies of presentation of the visitors to the Kaiserin, the Crown 
Prince and Princess and other members of the imperial household. 
This over the Kaiser led his guests into the jasper gallery of the 
palace, where a luncheon was served at small tables. Mrs. Roosevelt 
wall<:ed in escorted by the Kaiser and the ex- President escorted the 
Empress. The luncheon was strictly informal and there were no 
speeches. 

When it was over the Kaiser took possession of Mr. Roosevelt, 
and, piloting him into a corner, engaged him immediately in the 
most animated conversation. History probably will be deprived of 
knowledge of what was talked about, but whatever it was both the 
Emperor and Mr. Roosevelt resorted frequently to gestures with 
arms, fists and heads to drive home their meaning and emphasize 
their points. 

The similarity in disposition of the two men was strikingly i' 
evident to those who saw that animated interview. Any one could 
see that they were boon companions in heart and soul and that only 
their ocean-wide separation had prevented them from becoming 
intimate a ssociates. 

The conversation ending, the party present proceeded in auto- 
mobiles to the Sans Souci Palace for a look at the royal residence, 
hallowed with memories of Frederick the Great. Here Mr. Roosevelt 
recalled the claims of the Kaiser's great warrior ancestor to American 
interest, and spoke of how Frederick forbade England's hired Hessian 
troops to cross Prussian soil and his profound admiration for Wash- 
ington. The visit lasted from i to 5 o'clock, after which the Roose- 
velts motored back to the American Embassy in Berlin in one of the 
imperial automobiles. 

Whether it was due to his elocutionary contest with the Kaiser 

22 



S38 EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 

or to the raw, rainy weather which prevailed in Berhn throughout 
the day, Mr. Roosevelt reached the Embassy considerably hoarser 
than when he had arrived in Berlin early in the forenoon. His throat 
was so sore that he found it difficult to speak with any trace of free- 
dom to Commander Peary, who was awaiting him, the explorer 
having delayed his departure for Rome two days for the purpose of 
greeting the ex-President. 

On his return to the Embassy Mr. Roosevelt submitted to an 
examination at the hands of Professor Fraenkel, one of Germany's 
most celebrated throat specialists. Doctor Fraenkel found him 
suffering from an acute attack of laryngitis, an after-effect of bron- 
chitis, of such a type as frequently attacks persons who have dwelt 
some time in the tropics. The doctor declined to say whether it 
would be prudent for him to watch on horseback the spectacular 
V sham battle which the Kaiser had arranged for his amusement at 
Doeberitz on the following day. He also expressed skepticism 
regarding Mr. Roosevelt's ability to deliver his university lecture 
Thursday. If he should speak at all it would probably have to be in 
the softest accents, and everything savoring of exposure or strain 
had to be avoided. 

As a result of the dcctor's advice Roosevelt did not attend the 
dinner given by Ambassador and Mrs. Hill at the American Embassy 
in the evening, but remained in his rooms, in order to rest and spare 
exertion to his throat. 

Fortunately, the weather cleared in the night and the day fixed 
for the military event dawned beautifully bright. Dr. Fraenkel 
inspected his patient's throat in the early morning and found it 
greatly improved. He told him that, on that summer-like day, 
there would be no danger in his taking an outing. 

Delighted with this permission, the former soldier donned an 

American campaigning outfit for the occasion, khaki jacket and 

riding breeches, with tan leggings and boots and his familiar black 

V slouch hat, " our national headgear, " as he describes it. One of the 

Emperor's automobiles called for him at the Embassy at 7 o'clock. 

He was accompanied to the battleground at Doeberitz, midway 
between Berlin and Potsdam, by his German aide de camp, Lieuten- 



EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 339 

ant-Colonel von Koerner, ex- Ambassador Henry White, the American 
Military Attache in Berlin, Captain Shartle, and Kermit. The party 
reached the field a little before 8 and mounted chargers specially 
selected from the Kaiser's stables. 

The Emperor was already on hand, mounted and in the uniform 
of a General of Infantry. With him, also on horseback, were the 
Empress, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, Princess Eitel 
Friederich, Princess Victoria Louise and the Kaiser's son, Prince 
Adalbert. As soon as the Emperor's party had exchanged greetings i^ 
with Colonel Roosevelt, the Kaiser and the ex- President rode off to 
Mill Hill, from which they were to watch the day's operations, which 
were in full swing by 9 o'clock, the engagement becoming general 
two hours later. 

For five hours the flower of the Kaiser's army, 12,000 cavalry, 
artillery and infantry, of the guard, waged mimic war for the edifica- 
tion of the American soldier. The battle raged with realistic fury from 
9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, and while the countryside 
reverberated with the roar of artillery and the crackle of rifle fire, the 
man of San Juan and the German war lord surveyed the thrilling 
panorama on horseback from an eminence which commanded the 
entire position. 

It was a spectacle which kept the Rough Rider's blood tingling 
from start to finish. No single item in his long program of African 
and European honors had made a stronger appeal to his imagination. 

The theoretical objective of the sham battle was the repulse of 
the hostile force advancing on Potsdam from the east. The opera- 
tions covered an area of nine square miles of territory, ideally suited 
for the most varied sort of tactics. 

At noonday the heavens were rumbling with the roar of long 
range artillery and the barks of the machine guns and musketry. 
Colonel Roosevelt was enthralled. His field glasses raked the horizon 
restlessly, and as the invading cavalry, with 3,000 lances glinting 
brilliantly in the midday sun, drove home the final attack through 
the jaws of the defenders' artillery, the commander of the Rough 
Riders shouted his joy in staccato outbursts to his proud and smiling 
Imperial host. 



340 EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 

At 2 o'clock the "Cease fire" was sounded and then the troops 
of both armies joined in the march past the Emperor and Colonel 
Roosevelt, the latter dofhng his black sombrero in salute as each set 
of regimental colors filed by. 

When the march was over the Kaiser, surrounded by a glittering 
galaxy of several hundred staff ofhcers, turned to Colonel Roosevelt, 
removed his own helmet, and said " Mein Freund Roosevelt." So 
much in German, then in English, " I am happy to welcome you in 
the presence of my guards. We are glad you have seen a part of our 
/ army. You are the only private citizen who ever reviewed German 
troops. ' ' 

The Kaiser then addressed his officers, saying: "We have been 
honored to-day with the presence of the distinguished Colonel of the 
famous American Rough Riders. ' ' 

This bouquet of pleasantries brought the day's stirring events 
to a finish. The Kaiser and Colonel Roosevelt said: " Auf Wieder- 
sehen to-morrow, ' ' and motored back respectively to Potsdam and 
Berlin. In accordance with his policy of refraining from comment 
on the entertainment provided him, Colonel Roosevelt would only 
opine on returning to the embassy that it had been "a most inter- 
esting day. 

Asked how he had liked the specimen of German military charger 
which he had ridden, the Colonel said: " Oh, bully, by George! And 
what a corking five hours in the saddle, too. " 

The day ended with a dinner given by Ambassador Hill, the 
guests including, in addition to the ladies and gentlemen of the 
embassy. Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, Foreign Secretary and 
Baroness von Schoen, Seth Low and wife, Henry White and wife, 
American Consul General Thackara, of Berlin, and the rector of 
Berlin University. 

May 1 2th was the day fixed for the lecture before the University 
of Berlin, though doubt of the ability of the orator to deliver it, in 
the condition of his throat, was freely expressed. Fortunately the 
trouble was passing away and he rose with much improved vocal 
powers. The news that he expected to keep his engagement was 
heard mth elation, there being a strong desire to hear the celebrated 



EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 341 

American orator. As it proved, his voice, husky at first, grew in 
clearness as he went on, and he was able to deliver his lengthy address 
without difficulty, in addition to the remarks interjected from time to 
time by way of emphasis and explanation. "To-day I am in Berlin 
University, ' ' he began. " Yesterday I was in the open air university 
of the German army and sat at the foot of the great master of that 
University" (Frederick the Great). 

The topic of the lecture was "The World Movement." Its 
delivery was preceded by the University conferring upon him the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Emperor William honored 
the occasion with his presence, a significant courtesy, in view of the 
fact that it was the first time his Majesty had graced a confeiTnent 
and that the German court was in mourning for the monarch's uncle, 
King Edward. 

The ceremony of conferring the degree was staged and conducted 
with impressive simplicity. There were no flags or emblems of 
royalty, and the walls of the Aula were bare, save for the rows of busts 
of Germany's famous scholars and scientists. By a curious coinci- 
dence, the Aula, in which the address was given, was the hall in 
which the Kaiser, on October 19, 1906, rose dramatically, after an 
address by Professor John W. Burgess, of Columbia University, and 
called for three cheers for Theodore Roosevelt. 

The only touch of color was furnished by the Senators of the 
University, with their robes of scarlet and blue, and the five heads of 
the student corps, who wore blue jackets, white breeches, jack boots 
and parti-colored sashes. 

Four hundred guests of the University who held cards of admis- 
sion were seated when Emperor William, accompanying Mr. Roose- 
velt, entered from a side door of the hall. 

Colonel Roosevelt occupied the seat at the reading desk and at 
his side stood the heads of the student corps with drawn swords. 
This striking guard of honor remained standing and almost immov- 
able, for the three hours of the lecture and ceremony. 

The rector, Erich Schmidt, opened the program by giving 
an outline of the life of Colonel Roosevelt from the time that he was 
a delicate child until he became an African Nimrod. When he had 



^ 



3t2 EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 

finished this sketch, he introduced the former President, who was 
received enthusiastically. 

Mr. Roosevelt said that the German Emperor had often been 
held up before him as a statesman who was doing things which he, 
the speaker, should do. " I remember, " he added, " that my friend 
Doctor Pritchett, then president of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology at Boston, told me of the Emperor's interest in, and 
knowledge of, technical education. 

" While in Africa I used to think that there was something wrong 
with the mail if it did not bring a letter from Benjamin Ide Wheeler, 
telling me of his admiration for some feature of German life and of 
the Emperor's extraordinary qualities and kindness. " 

He referred to the fact that his own family was of Low Dutch 
extraction and of the indebtedness, beginning with Colonial days, of 
the United States to Germany in blood, ideas and achievements. 
Then he entered upon his prepared lecture, " The World Movement, " 
sketching the ancient and m.ediasval civilizations, pointing to the 
causes of their rise and fall, and drawing lessons to show how the 
civilization of to-day miight endure. 

He dwelt upon the necessity of keeping keen the " fighting edge 
y and asserted that development must be broadly along all lines. Arms 
must not be forgotten, for science and comm.ercialism must not sup- 
plant entirely the "virile fighting virtues." 

The full text of this lecture is given in a succeeding chapter and 
it will suffice here to say farther that the Emperor warmly congrat- 
lated the speaker upon his address and his courage in accomplishing 
his lengthy task under distressing physical conditions. He talked 
with him with animation for six or eight minutes before leaving the 

hall. 

On the following morning Colonel Roosevelt, in company with 
the burgomaster, Hen* Kirchner, motored to Buch, a surburb, where 
1,200 worn-out workers, men and women, are maintained in relative 
comfort at the expense of the city of Berlin. They are made up of 
the aged, the infirm and those temporarily incapacitated for work. 
They are not only supported reasonably, but in cases of illness receive 
thorough medical treatment. 



EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 343 

Returning to the city, Roosevelt was the guest at luncheon of the 
American Ambassador, Dr. David Jayne Hill, at the Embassy. 
After the luncheon he spoke briefly, but significantly, to a number of 
delegates representing the German group of the Interparliamentary 
Union. His remarks were : 

"The general agitation for peace with its Utopia of idealistic 
arms, is calculated to excite only the derision of serious-minded men. 
The practical endeavors of practical men like yourselves, however, 
are rich with promise for the future. 

He was subsequently waited upon by members of the German 
Shakespeare Society, who conferred upon him honorary membership 
in that organization, the document given him stating that this 
Society constituted " a close tie between Germany and the English- 
speaking world. 

In the afternoon the ex- President hobnobbed with a large num- 
ber of the officers of the Kaiser's army and navy, at a reception 
tendered by the American military naval attache at the home of the 
latter, Commander Belknap. He had a "jolly" anecdote up his 
sleeve for each and every guest, and the hour passed pleasantly for 
everybody present. 

In the evening the Roosevelts dined privately with old time 
Washington friends, M. and Mme. Jules Cambon. Then they 
returned to the Embassy to receive the members of the American 
colony and the consular force in Germany. 

The following day, the last full day in Berlin, was largely devoted 
to wild animals. It began with huntsmen's luncheon at the home of 
Joseph Clark Grew, second secretary of the American Embassy, 
where the statesman rhinoceros slayer met a number of famous 
German big game hunters and animal experts, notably Professor 
Schilling, author of " With Rifle and Flashlight. " Another guest of 
interest was Count von Goetzen, former Governor of German East 
Africa. Count von Goetzen was German Military Attach^ with the 
American Army in Cuba, and wrote a flattering account of Roose- 
velt's Rough Riders for the Kaiser's General Staff. 

After the luncheon Professor Schilling gave a lantern slide 
exhibit of East African hunting scenes, ending with a humorous 



344 EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 

slide which purpoted to be a plea to Colonel Roosevelt from the wild 
animals of Africa, beseeching his all-powerful support in the pre- 
vention of game slaughter. The petition read as follows : 

" Salaam, Bwana Myudwa, Salaam, thou great Boss of our 
animal world. Thou hast such great influence over us and human 
mortals, too. Kindly do thy best to protect us against extermina- 
tion. " 

The petition is signed in Suaheli, in the equivalents for tiger, 
hyena lion, giraffe, elephant and rhinoceros. 

The party afterwards made its way to the Berlin Zoological 
Gardens. Starting in with zebras, the Colonel inspected everything 
in the " zoo " from the elephants to the monkeys. The tigers, giraffes 
and grizzly bears interested him most. "Those are my friends," 
he said, as he tarried before a cage containing a particularly fine 
family of grizzlies. 

It was at the cage of the wonderful trained chimpanzee, " Missy, ' ' 
that the Colonel spent the longest time. " Missy" eats soup, drinks 
coffee, puffs cigarettes, jumps the rope and dances like a human being, 
and she made an instananeous hit with Colonel Roosevelt. 

"Wonderful! Isn't that corking?" he exclaimed as "Missy" 
was put through her various paces. " The wisest animal I have ever 
seen, " was his parting comment. 

When he returned to the embassy he found awaiting him as a 
gift from the Kaiser a magnificent and massive porcelain vase, three 
feet high, from the private pottery works at Cadinen. The vase 
bears on one side a splendid hand-painted portrait of the Kaiser, and 
on the other views of the royal castle at Berlin where it had been 
intended that the visitor should be entertained, a purpose prevented 
by the death of the British King. 

Whatever the cause, whether or not it was due to the death of 
King Edward, the visit to Berlin excited very little interest in the 
American ex- President, the indifference to his presence on the part 
of the people being in marked contrast to the great enthusiasm else- 
where shown. There was also a significant lack of comment on his 
address in the next day's German press. 

If, however, Mr. Roosevelt failed to make a palpable hit with 



EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 345 

the Berliners as a whole, he was the most pronounced kind of a success 
with the Kaiser and other German dignitaries with whom he came 
into contact. There is not the shghtest doubt that Roosevelt and 
the Emperor formed a firm and fast friendship during the brief 
interval of their intercourse. The Kaiser appeared to be charmed 
with his visitor's personality, while his Majesty inspired the ex- Presi- 
dent with reciprocal sentiments. In fact, as a distinguished official 
personage much in the company of the monarch and Mr. Roosevelt 
put it, " it is a case of mutual hypnotization. " 

Mr. Roosevelt's unconventionality and dynamic energy are the 
qualities which most strongly appealed to the Kaiser. The ex- Presi- 
dent did a thing at the University which would have provoked a 
national scandal had one of his Majesty's own subjects perpetrated it. 
He kept the entire imperial family cooling their heels in the lobby 
waiting for the Roosevelt party, which turned up 15 minutes late. 
One of the Kaiser's most pronounced antipathies is having to wait for 
any man. German reputations and careers have been ruined for the 
commission of such offenses. 

All eminent Germans who have met Colonel Roosevelt have been 
immediately struck with the justness of the familiar comparison of /' 

the Kaiser and the former President. Mrs. Roosevelt was most 
strongly impressed in this respect. She had always doubted the y 
accuracy of the stories of the resemblance, but she told her friends, 
after seeing her husband and the Kaiser talk, argue and gesticulate 
together, that she no longer had any doubt that the two shared their 
dorninant traits in common. 

The visit of the American ex-President to Germiany ended on 
Sunday, the 15th, when at 11.40 A. M. he took a train en route for 
England. Around the entrance of the Freiderichstrasse station was 
gathered a crowd of about 500 persons when the automobiles con- 
taining the party, including Ambassador and Mrs. Hill, dashed up. 
They were lustily cheered as they passed through the station to the 
Princes' waiting room, which had been reserved for their use. 

Baron Von Schoen, the Foreign Secretary of Germany, Mr. Cam- 
bon, the French Ambassador, and a score of American friends were 
present to bid the travelers good bye, while the Kaiser had sent an 



346 EMPEROR WILLIAM GREETS EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 



informal farewell, as he expeeted to meet his guest again at King 
Edward's funeral. With expressions of delight with his visit Mr. 
Roosevelt entered his special car, and was swept away amid a chorus 
of cheers and a sea of waving hats and handkerchiefs. 

The route lay by way of Flushing, Holland, thence by steamer 
to Queensboro, England, at which point a train would be taken to 
London, due there about 8 A. M. on Monday. Thus ended Roose- 
velt's whirlwind tour of Europe, during which every important 
country except Russia had been visited. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

England in Mourning Receives Its Guest of Honor 

THE death of King Edward changed the whole character of 
Colonel Roosevelt 's visit to England. Instead of the gayety 
and enthusiasm he had met with elsewhere, he found himself 
in a land plunged in grief, the sombre hues of mourning replacing the 
proposed bright ones of welcome. At the station only a small party, 
composed chiefly of the diplomatic representatives of the United 
States, awaited his arrival, and these all in deep mourning. He 
himself was in black, with mourning bands around his hat and his 
left arm. 

His day in London began with a visit to Buckingham Palace, 
where the body of the dead monarch then lay in state. This was 
followed by an hour's interview with King George, and a meeting 
with Queen Mary and others of the royal lineage. From the palace 
he went to Dorchester House, where he was to stay as the guest of 
Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador to Great Britain. As his 
throat still troubled him, Dr. St. Clair Thompson, a leading laryngolo- 
gist, was called in. His principal advice to his patient was to give 
his voice all the rest possible dtiring the next few days. 

The doctor's orders were followed as closely as the Roosevelt 
temperament would permit, much of the time during the following 
days being devoted to literary labor on his work descriptive of his 
African trip. 

Yet he could not well escape the royalty which the King's death 
had called to London, he having an interview on the i8th with the 
King of Spain, the Crown Prince of Greece and Prince Henry of 
Prussia, and on the 19th renewing his acquaintance with the Emperor 
William. That this meeting was a hearty one need scarcely be said. 

The obsequies of England's dead King, however, threw a shadow 
during this week over all greetings and festivities and imparted a 
sombre tone to all that took place. We have no need here to de- 

(347) 



34S ENGLAND IN MOURNING RECEIVES GUEST OF HONOR 

scribe the striking funeral ceremony, a spectacle of grief at which 
all London turned out and to which all Europe sent its royal repre- 
sentatives. There were two ceremonial processions, one attending 
the removal of the King's body from Buckingham Palace to West- 
minister Hall, the other the funeral procession, in which no fewer than 
nine sovereigns took part. In addition were the heirs to several 
thrones, members of the royal families, and a host of personages of 
lesser dignity. 

The order of precedence in the procession was governed by kin- 
ship as related to the position of the sovereigns. The special envoys 
of the United States and France occupied the eighth carriage, and 
although ex- President Roosevelt was inconspicuous in the procession, 
King George gave him marked attention at the lunch at Windsor 
Castle after the funeral, seating him, with eight other guests, at his 
own table. The Gennan Emperor sat with the Queen Mother and 
Queen Mary. 

Sunday was spent at West Park, the country seat of Ambassador 
Reid, and during the following week the Roosevelts were the guests 
of Colonel Arthur H. Lee, formicrly attache of the British Embassy 
at Washington. While there an interesting incident took place. 

The marriage of Mr. Roosevelt to Miss Carew had taken place in 
London twenty-three years before, at St. George's Chapel, Hanover 
Square, and the two made a visit of sentiment to this place on the 
24th, accompanied by their children Kermit and Ethel. 

Mr. Roosevelt did not wish to be recognized for fear a curiotis 
crowd would assemble to watch his movem.ents. When he walked 
into the empty church shortly after 4 o'clock he had taken off his 
glasses and the verger did not recognize him. The party wandered 
about the church for half an hour and then visited the vestry. Roose- 
velt asked to see the registers in order to point out the entry of his 
marriage to his children. Unfortunately, the clerk was absent and 
the marriage register under lock and key, so he was invited to come 
back again. 

"There are three very interesting entries in the register," said 
the verger. "The late King and Queen Alexandra and the present 
King and Queen signed as witnesses at one marriage. Then we have 



ENGLAND IN MOURNING RECEIVES GUEST OF HONOR 349 

the signatures of three Prime Ministers — Gladstone, Rosebery and 
Balfour — at the marriage of a fourth Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, 
and the signature of Colonel Roosevelt, the former President of the 
United States, who was married here twenty- three years ago." 

His hearers showed mild interest in this announcement. 

"Many Americans come here solely to see the last entry," con- 
tinued the verger. " We keep a sheet of paper inserted at the page, 
with a clipping from a newspaper of that day, which describes how 
Mr. Roosevelt came here from the hotel wearing a bowler hat, how 
he entered by the back door and was married in the simplest manner 
possible. ' ' 

Colonel Roosevelt and his family thanked the verger for this 
very interesting information, and left the church without disclosing 
their identity. 

"I never realized it was Colonel Roosevelt," said the verger 
afterward. 

The 26th was marked by one of the most interesting incidents 
of the English sojourn, the venerable University of Cambridge con- 
ferring upon the distinguished American the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Laws. The ceremony was brief and shorn of much of the 
usual splendor, as a mark of respect to the recently interred monarch, 
but more than a thousand persons were packed into the old Senate 
building, the students crowding the gallery and gleefully shouting 
"Teddy, Teddy!" as the newly made doctor accepted his diploma. 

During the ceremony the students swung a Teddy Bear above 
the centre of the wall, where it dangled to the entertainment of 
everybody. Colonel Roosevelt joined in the pleasantry and as he 
was leaving the building reached up and patted the toy beast with 
his hand. 

Dr. Mason, the vice chancellor, made a brief address, in which he 
spoke of the former President as " a most welcome guest and a man 
of singular vigor and versatility, who for seven years presided over 
the great republic which is united with Great Britain by many ties, " 
and dwelt upon the part that Colonel Roosevelt has played in the 
government of the United States and upon his efforts for the promo- 
tion of the peace of the world. 



350 ENGLAND IN MOURNING RECEIVES GUEST OF HONOR 

He spoke of his "almost royal progress through Europe," and 
his literary distinction, and concluded by introducing Colonel Roose- 
velt as " the faithful friend of the British empire and of all good men 
throughout the world, who will continue in the future to do good 
service for his country. ' ' 

The guest subsequently met the undergraduates on their own 
ground, that is, in the hall of the Cambridge Union, a combination 
of club and debate society, which has given not a few celebrities to 
English public life, among them Macaulay, Lytton, Harcourt and 
Alverstone. The vice-president of the Union proposed the dis- 
tinguished visitor as an honorary member, mentioning that one of 
the three honorary micmbers already enrolled was Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, and the secretary seconded the motion, which when put by 
the president was carried by acclamation. 

On the 30th the ex- President was entertained at luncheon by the 
Royal Geographical Society, Major Leonard Darwin presiding, and 
the guests including Lord Kitchener, Commander Peary, Lord 
Curzon, the African travelers Sir Harry Johnston and Frederick 
Selous, and others of note. On this day also he met Senator Elihu 
Root, at the American Embassy, and had a long private talk with 
him, and in the afternoon attended a reception given by Sir George 
and Lady Reid. That evening the Roosevelts took tea with the 
famous novelist Mrs. Humphrey Ward. 

The following day was the crucial one of Colonel Roosevelt's 
visit to London, one in which he treated all England to a sensation 
the echoes of which only slowly died away. The feature of the day 
was the ceremony of presenting him with the freedom of the City of 
London, in the old Guild Hall, and in his speech accepting the honor, 
he took advantage of the new freedom given him to return to the sub- 
ject with which he had stirred up the British lion in his Cairo speech. 

He told his hearers that England had given Egypt the best 
government it had enjoyed for two thousand years, but gave them 
a stirring prod when he said that recent events, following the assassina- 
tion of Premier Boutros Pasha, had shown that in certain vital points 
the British Government had erred and that England must repair 
this error if she wished to do her full duty. 



ENGLAND IN MOURNING RECEIVES GUEST OF HONOR 351 

He called attention to the fact that England's primary object 
in taking hold in Egypt was the establishment of order and said : 

" Either you have or you have not the right to remain in Egypt 
and establish and keep order. If you have not the right and have 
not the desire to keep order, then by all means get out. But if, 
as I hope, you feel that your duty to civilized mankind and your 
fealty to your own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then make 
the fact and the name agree and show that you are ready to meet 
in very deed the responsibility which is yours. 

" When a people treats assassination as the cornerstone of self- 
government it forfeits all rights to be treated as worthy of self-govern- 
ment. Som.e nation must govern Egypt, and I hope and believe 
that the English nation will decide that the duty is theirs. ' ' 

" You have tried to do too much in the interests of the Egyptians 
themselves. Those who have to do with uncivilized peoples, especially 
fanatical peoples, must remember that in such a situation as that 
which faces you in Egypt, weakness, timidity and sentimentality 
may cause infinitely more hami than violence and injustice. Sen- 
timentality is the most broken reed on which righteousness can lean. " 

His speech proved a bomb-shell that stiiTcd England to its 
depths. The newspapers were full of it, some blaming it hotly as an 
impertinence, some praising it mildly as a bit of useful truth from 
an unprejudiced outsider, and days passed before the mingled echoes 
of praise and blame passed away. 

Yet Roosevelt went his way undisturbed. He had given utter- 
ance to an opinion that had long been in his mind and he left it to 
work what good it might, heeding little the thunders of editorial 
comment. Certainly his intermeddling did not cause him to lose 
caste with many of the miost prominent Englishmen, if we may judge 
from a remark made by Sir George Reid, High Commissioner of 
Australia, in a speech delivered by him : 

" I regard this distinguished man Roosevelt as one of the best 
and most powerful friends humanity and civilization have in this 
world to-day. Without entering into the subject of American politics 
I may mention that the other day I said to Roosevelt : * Why, your 
career is only beginning. " ' 



352 ENGLAND IN MOURNING RECEIVES GUEST OF HONOR 

The final important event of Roosevelt's visit to England was 
his admirable speech at Oxford University, which rivalled Cambridge 
on June yth by conferring on him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. 
This address we have given elsewhere and we need only refer to it 
here. It was the periodical Romanes lecture, of which the first was 
given by Mr. Gladstone and the second by Professor Huxley. A 
larger audience gathered to hear Mr. Roosevelt than had listened 
to any of his predecessors and his address was of a character admirably 
fitted to the occasion. 

Roosevelt had but three more days to spend in England, and on 
the 9th became the guest of Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign 
Secretary. In characteristic fashion he deprived Londoners of the 
opportunity of giving him a send-off. Before the people were aware 
of his intention he had quietly left the city, not half a dozen persons 
knowing the time or the manner of his departure. He complained 
that he had not had time to see a hundredth part of the country. 
He particularly wanted to walk through a typical English countryside. 

Accordingly Sir Edward gave him a friendly challenge to tramp 
through New Forest, a picturesque and romantic spot near South- 
ampton, full of geological and antiquarian interest. Sir Edward 
is a keen angler and deeply interested in ornithology, and the two 
started on a long tramp through the woods in which the whole day 
was spent. At nightfall they reached a hotel near Southampton 
rain-soaked and mud-splattered, Roosevelt remarking to a friend: 

" My day in New Forest with Sir Edward Grey was the crowning 
experience of the whole three months. 

On the next day, June loth, after bidding farewell to Sir Edward 
and other friends present, and meeting his wife and children who had 
come on from London, he embarked with them on a tender which 
took them to the liner Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, on which passage 
for the party had been secured. Europe lay behind them, the Atlan- 
tic throbbed under their feet, and soon the returning party saw the 
land vanish in the distance and turned their eyes forward towards 
the distant shores of the New World and their far-off home. 



CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC 

LECTURE BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS, APRIL 23, 1910. 

"Strange and impressive associations rise in the mind of a man from the New World 
who speaks before this august body in this ancient institution of learning. Before his eyes 
pass the shadows of mighty kings and warlike nobles, of great masters of law and theology; 
through the shining dust of the dead centuries he sees crowded figures that tell of the power 
and learning and splendor of times gone by; and he sees also the innmnerable host of humble 
students to whom clerkship meant emancipation, to whom it was well-nigh the only outlet 
from the dark thraldom of the Middle Ages. 

"This was the most famous university of mediaeval Europe at a time when no one 
dreamed that there was a New World to discover. Its services to the cause of human 
knowledge already stretched far back into the remote past at the time when my forefathers, 
three centuries ago, were among the sparse bands of traders, plowmen, woodchoppers and 
fisherfolk who, in hard struggle with the iron unfriendliness of the Indian-haunted land, were 
laying the fomidations of what has now become the giant repubUc of the West. To conquer 
a continent, to tame the shaggy roughness of wild nature, means grim warfare; and the 
generations eng?.ged in it cannot keep, still less add to, the stores of garnered wisdom which 
once were theirs, and which are still in the hands of their brethren who dwell in the old 
land. To conquer the wilderness means to wrest victory from the same hostile forces with 
which mankind struggled in the immemorial infancy of our race. The primeval conditions 
must be met by primeval qualities which are incomparable with the retention of much that 
has been painfully acquired by humanity as through the ages it has striven upward toward 
civilization. In conditions so pi-imiti\-e there can be but a primitive culture. At first 
only the rudest schools can be established, for no others would meet the needs of the hard- 
driven, sinewy folk who thrust forward the frontier in the teeth of savage nature; and many 
years elapse before any of these schools can develop into seats of higher learning and broader 
culture. 

"The pioneer days pass; the stump-dotted clearings expand into vast stretches of fertile 
farm land; the stockaded clusters of log cabins change into towns; the hunters of game, the 
fellers of trees, the rude frontier traders and tillers of the soil, the men who wander all their 
lives long through the wilderness as the heralds and harbingers of an oncoming civilization, 
themselves vanish before the civilization for which they have prepared the way. The 
children of their successors and supplanters, and then their children and children's children, 
change and develop with extraordinary rapidity. The conditions accentuate vices and 
virtues, energy and ruthlessness, all the good qualities and all the defects of an intense indi- 
vidualisrn, self-reliant, self-centred, far more conscious of its rights than of its duties, and 
blind to its own shortcomings. To the hard materialism of the frontier days succeeds the 
hard materialism of an industrialism even more intense and absorbing thin that of the older 
nations ; although these themselves have likewise already entered on the age of a complex 
and predominantly industrial civilization. 

"As the country grows its people, who have won success in so many lines, turn back to 
try to_reco\'er the possessions of the mind and the spirit, which perforce their fathers threw 
aside in order better to wage the first rough battles for the continent their children inherit. 
The leaders of thought and of action grope their way forward to a new life, realizing, some- 
times dirnly, sometimes clear-sightedly, that the life of material gain, whether for a nation or 
an individual, is of value only as a foundation, only as there is added to it the uplift that 
comes from devotion to loftier ideals. The new Hfe thus sought can in part be developed 
afresh fromwhat is round about in the New World; but it can be developed in full only by 
freely drawing upon the treasure-houses of the Old World, upon the treasures stored in the 
ancient abodes of wisdom and learning, such as this where I speak to-day. It is a mistake 
for any nation merely to copy another; but it is an even greater mistake, it is a proof of 
weakness in any nation, not to be anxious to learn from another, and willing and able to 
adapt that learning to the new national conditions and make it fruitful and productive 

_C353), 



354 LECTURE BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 

therein. It is for us of the New World to sit at the feet of Gamaliel of the Old; then, if we 
have the right stuff in xis, we can show that Paul in his turn can become a teacher as well as 
a scholar. 

DUTIES OF CITIZENS IN A REPUBLIC. 

"To-day I shall speak to you on the subject of individual citizenship, the one subject of 
vital importance to you, my hearers, and to me and my countrymen, because you and we are 
citizens of great democratic republics. A democratic republic such as each of ours — an 
effort to realize in its full sense government by, of and for the people — represents the most 
gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught with greatest possibilities alike 
for good and for evil. The success of republics like yours and like ours means the glory, and 
our failure the despair, of mankind ; and for you and for us the question of the quality of the 
individual citizen is stipreme. Under other forms of government, under the rule of one man 
or of a very few men, the qviality of the rulers is all-important, If, under such governments, 
the qviality of the rulers is high enough, then the nation may for generations lead a brilliant 
career, and add substantially to the sum of world achievement, no matter how low the 
quality of the average citizen ; because the average citizen is an almost negligible quantity in 
working out the final results of that type of national greatness. 

' ' But with you and with us the case is different. With you here, and with us in my own 
home, in the long run, success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the aver- 
age man., the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of 
life, and next in those great occasional crises which call for the heroic virtues. The average 
citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The stream will not perma- 
nently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national 
greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation. Therefore it behooves us to do 
our best to see that the standard of the average citizen is kept high; and the average cannot 
be kept high unless the standard of the leaders is very much higher. 

"It is well if a large proportion of the leaders in any republic, in any democracy, are, 
as a matter of course, drawn from the classes represented in this audience to-day; but only 
provided that those classes possess the gifts of sympathy with plain people and of devotion 
to great ideals. You and those like you have received special advantages; you have all of 
you had the opportunity for mental training; many of you have had leisure; most of you 
have had a chance for the enjoyment of life far greater than comes to the majority of your 
fellows. To you and your kind much has been given, and from you much should be expected. 
Yet there are certain failings against which it is especially incumbent that both men of 
trained and cultivated intellect, and men of inherited wealth and position, should especially 
guard themselves, because to these failings they are especially liable ; and if yielded to, their 
■ — your — chances of useful service are at an end. 

BEWARE OF THE CYNIC. 

"Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap 
temptation to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, as the man who has outgrown 
emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face 
life is to face it with a sneer. There are many men who feel a kind of twisted pride in cynicism ; 
there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they them- 
selves dare not even attempt. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of 
respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief 
toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even 
if it fjiil, comes second to achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness 
to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness 
which will not accept contact ^^'ith life's realities— all these are marks, not, as the possessor 
would fain think, of superiority, but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their 
part manfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affectation of contempt for the 
achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves their ouTi weakness. The 
role is easy; there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both 
criticism and performance. 

"It it not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man 
stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to 
the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; 
who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort 
without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows 
the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at 
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, 



CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC 355 

at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid 
souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Shame on the man of cultivated taste who per- 
mits refinement to develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of 
a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small 
field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their 
fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride or slight what is done by those who 
actually bear the brunt of the day ; nor yet for those others who always profess that they 
would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not what they actually are. The 
man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be 
cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing 
of the great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stem belief, the lofty enthusiasm, 
of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; 
well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and 
have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fight- 
ing, he of the many errors and the valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not 
over the memory of the young lord who ' but for the vile guns would have been a soldier. ' 

LESSONS OF FRANCE TO OTHER NATIONS. 

' France has tatight many lessons to other nations ; surely one of the most important is 
the lesson her whole history teaches, that a high artistic and literary development is com- 
patible with notable leadership in arms and statecraft. The brilliant gallantry of the French 
soldier has for many centuries been proverbial ; and during these same centuries at every court 
in Europe the freemasons of fashion have treated the French tongue as their common speech ; 
while every artist and man of letters, and every man of science able to appreciate that marvel- 
ous instrument of precision, French prose, has turned toward France for aid and inspiration. 
How long the leadership in arms and letters has lasted is curiously illustrated by the fact that 
the earliest masterpiece in a modern tongue is the splendid French epic which tells of Roland's 
doom and the vengeance of Charlemagne when the lords of the Frankish host were stricken 
at Roncesvalles. 

"Let those who have, keep, let those who have not, strive to attain, a high standard of 
cultivation and scholarship. Yet let us remember that these stand second to certain other 
things. There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound mind. But above 
mind and above body stands character — the sum of those qualities which we mean when we 
speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. I believe in exer- 
cise for the body, always provided that we keep in mind that physical development is a means 
and not an end. I believe, of course, in giving to all the people a good education. But the 
education must contain much besides book-learning in order to be really good. We must 
ever remember that no keenness and subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in any 
way make up for the lack of the great solid qualities. Self-restraint, self-mastery, common 
sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with 
others, courage and resolution — these are the qualities which mark a masterful people. 
Without them no people can control itself, or save itself from being controlled from the out- 
side. I speak to a brilliant assemblage; I speak to a great tmiversity which represents the 
flower of the highest intellectual development ; I pay all homage to intellect, and to elaborate 
and specialized training of the intellect ; and yet I know I shall have the assent of all of you 
present when I add that more important still are the common-place, e very-day qualities 
and virtues. 

THE NOBILITY OF LABOR 

"Such ordinary, every-day qualities include the will and the power to work, to fight at 
need, and to have plenty of healthy children. The need that the average man shall work is 
so obvious as hardly to warrant insistence. There are a few people in every country so born 
that they can lead lives of leisure. These fill a useful function if they make it evident that 
leisure does not mean idleness; for some of the most valuable work needed by civilization is 
essentially non-remunerative in its character, and of course the people who do this work 
should in large part be drawn from those to whom remuneration is an object of indiflfeience. 
But the a\'erage man must earn his ov/n livelihood. He should be trained to do so, and he 
should be trained to feel that he occupies a contemptiljle position if he does not do so; that 
he is not an object of envy if he is idle, at whichever end of the social scale he stands, buf 
an object of contempt, an object of derision. 

"In the next place the good man should be both a strong and a brave man; that is, he 
should be able to fight, he should be able to serve his country as a soldier if the need arises. 



3S6 LECTURE BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 

There are well-meaning philosophers who declaim against the imrighteousness of war. They 
are right only if they lay all their emphasis upon the unrighteousness. War is a dreadful 
thing, and unjust waris a crime against humanity. But it is such a crime because it is 
imjust; not because it is war. The choice must ever be in favor of righteousness, and this 
whether the alternative be peace or whether the alternative be war. The question must not 
be merely, Is there to be peace or war? The question must be. Is the right to prevail? Are 
the great laws of righteousness once more to be fulfilled? And the answer from a strong 
and virile people must be, 'Yes,' whatever the cost. Every honorable effort should always 
be made to avoid war, just as every honorable effort should always be made by the individual 
in private Hfe to keep out of a brawl, to keep out of trouble ; but no self-respecting individual, 
no self -•■especting nation, can or ought to submit to wrong. 

RACE SUICIDE A NATION'S CURSE. 

"Finally, even more important than ability to work, even more important than abiUty 
to fight at need, is it to remember that the chief of blessings for any nation is that it shall 
leave its seed to inherit the land. It was the crown of blessings in Biblical times; and it is 
the crown of blessings now. The greatest of all curses is the curse of sterility, and the 
severest of all condemnations should be that visited upon wilful sterility. The first essential 
in any civilization is that the man and the woman shall be father and mother of healthy 
children, so that the race shall increase and not decrease. If this is not so, if through no 
fault of the society there is failure to increase, it is a great misfortune. If the failure is due 
to deliberate and wilful fault, then it is not merely a misfortune, it is one of those crimes oi 
ease and self-indulgence, of shrinking from pain and effort and risk, which in the long run 
Nature punishes more heavily than any other. If we of the great republics, if we, the free 

Eeople who claim to have emancipated ovirselves from the thraldom of wrong and error, 
_ ring dov/n on our heads the curse that comes upon the wilfully barren, then it will be an 
idle waste of breath to prattle of our achievements, to boast of all that we have done. No 
refinement of life, no delicacy of taste, no material progress, no sordid heaping up of riches, 
no sensuous development of art and literature, can in any way compensate for the loss of the 
great fundamental virtues; and of these great fundamental virtues, the greatest is the 
race's power to perpetuate the race. 

"Character must show itself in the man's performance both of the duty he owes himself 
andof the duty he owes the State. The man's foremost duty is owed to himself and his 
family; and he can do this duty only by earning money, by providing what is essential to 
material well-being; it is only after this has been done that he can hope to build a higher 
superstructure on the solid material foundation; it is only after this has been done that he 
can help in rnovements for the general well-being. He must pull his own weight first, and 
only after this can his surplus strength be of use to the general public. It is not good to 
excite that bitter laughter which expresses contempt ; and contempt is what we feel for the 
being whose enthusiasm to benefit mankind is such that he is a burden to those nearest 
him; who wishes to do great things for humanity in the abstract, but who cannot keep 
his wife in comfort or educate his children. 

MERE WEALTH NOT AN ASSET OF VALUE. 

_" Nevertheless, while laj'ing all stress on this point, while not merely acknowledging 
but insisting upon the fact that there must be a ba.sis of material well-being for the individual 
as for the nation, let us with equal emphasis insist that this material well-being represents 
nothing but_ the foundation, and that the foundation, though indispensable, is worthless 
vmless upon it is raised the superstructure of a higher life. That is why I decline to recognize 
the mere multi-millionaire, the man of mere wealth, as an asset of value to any country; 
and especially as not an asset to my own country. If he has earned or uses his wealth in a 
way that makes him of real benefit, of real use — and such is often the case— why, then he 
does become an asset of worth. But it is the way in which it has been earned or used, 
and not the mere fact of wealth, that entitles him to the credit. There is need in business, 
as in most other forms of human activity, of the great guiding intelHgences. Their places 
cannot be supplied by any number of lesser intelligences. It is a good thing that they 
should have ample recognition, ample reward. But we must not transfer our admiration 
to the reward instead of to the deed rewarded; and if what should be the reward exists 
withovit the service having been rendered, then admiration wU come only from those who 
are mean of soul. The truth' is that, after a certain measure of tangible material success or 
reward has been achieved, the question of increasing it becomes of constantly less import- 



CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC 357 

ance compared to other things that can be done in Hfe. It is a bad thing for a nation to 
raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than 
that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself. The man who, for any 
cause for which he is himself accountable, has failed to support himself and those for whom he 
is responsible, ought to feel that he has fallen lamentably short in his prime duty. But 
the man who, having far surpassed the limit of providing for the wants, both of body and 
mind, of himself and of those depending upon him, then piles up a great fortune, for the 
acquisition or retention of which he returns no corresponding benefit to the nation as a 
whole, should himself be made to feel that, so far from being a desirable, he is an unworthy, 
citizen of the community; that he is to be neither admired nor envied; that his right- 
thinking fellow-countrymen put him low in the scale of citizenship, and leave him to be 
consoled by the admiration of those whose level of purpose is even lower than his own. 

"My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a few words. In every 
civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded. Ordinarily and in the great 
majority of cases human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run 
identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human 
rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property. 

MONEY MAKING AND ORATORY. 

" It is essential to good citizenship clearly to understand that there are certain qualities 
which we in a democracy are prone to admire in and of themselves, which ought by rights to 
be judged admirable or the reverse solely from the standpoint of the use made of them. 
Foremost among these I should include two very distinct gifts — the gift of money making 
and the gift of oratory. Money making, the money touch, I have spoken of above. It is a 
quality which in a moderate degree is essential. It may be useful when developed to a very 
great degree, but only if acconipanied and controlled by other qualities ; and without such 
control the possessor tends to develop into one of the least attractive types produced by a 
modern industrial democracy. So it is with the orator. It is highly desirable that a leader 
of opinion in a democracy should be able to state his views clearly and convincingly. But 
all that the oratory can do of value to the community is to enable the man thus to explain 
himself; if it enables the orator to persuade his hearers to put false values on things, it merely 
makes him a power for mischief. Some excellent public servants have not the gift at all, 
and must rely upon their deeds to speak for them; and unless the oratory does represent 
genuine conviction, based on good common sense and able to be translated into efficient 
performance, then the better the oratory the greater the damage to the public it deceives. 
Indeed, it is a sign of marked political weakness in any commonwealth if the people tend to 
be carried away by mere oratory, if they tend to value words in and for themselves, as divorced 
from the deeds for which they are supposed to stand. The phrasemaker, the phrase-monger, 
the ready talker, however great his power, whose speech does not make for courage, sobriety 
and right tmderstanding, is simply a noxious element in the body politic, and it speaks ill 
for the public if he has influence over them. To admire the gift of oratory without regard to 
the moral quality behind the gift is to do wrong to the republic, 

POWER OF JOURNALISM. 

"Of course all that I say of the orator applies with even greater force to the orator's 
latter-day and more influential brother, the journalist. The power of the journalist is great, 
but he is entitled neither to respect nor admiration because of that power unless it is used 
aright. He can do and he often does, great good. He can do, and he often does, infinite 
mischief. All journalists, all writers, for the very reason that they appreciate the vast 
possibilities of their profession, should bear testimony against those who deeply discredit it. 
Offenses against taste and morals, which are bad enough in a private citizen, are infinitely 
worse if made into instruments for debauching the community through a newspaper. Men- 
dacity, slander, sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, all are potent factors for_ the 
debauchery of the public mind and conscience. The exctise advanced for vicious writing 
that the public demands it and that the demand must be supplied, can no more be admitted 
than if it were advanced by the purveyors of food who sell poisonous adulterations. 

"In short, the good citizen in a republic must realize that he ought to possess two sets 
of qualities, and that neither avails without the other. He must have those qualities which 
make for efficiency; and he must also have those qualities which direct the efficiency into 
channels for the public good. He is useless if he is inefficient, There is nothing to be done 



358 LECTURE BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 

with that type of citizen of whom all that can be said is that he is harmless. Virtue which 
is dependent upon a sluggish circulation is not impressive. There is little place in active 
life for the timid good man. The man who is saved by weakness from robust wickedness is 
likewise rendered immune from the robust virtues. The good citizen in a republic must first 
of all be able to hold his own. He is no good citizen unless he has the ability which will 
make him work hard and which at need will make him fight hard. The good citizen is not 
u good citizen unless he is an efficient citizen. 

"But if a man's efficiency is not guided and regulated by a moral sense, then the more 
eihcient he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the body politic. Courage, intellect, 
all the masterful qualities, serve but to make a man more evil if they are used merely for that 
man's own advancement, Vvith brutal indifference to the rights of others. It speaks ill 
for the community if the community worships these qualities and treats their possessors 
as heroes regardless of whether the qualities are used rightly or wrongly. It makes no 
difference whether such a man's force and ability betray themselves in the career of money- 
maker or politician, soldier or orator, journalist or popular leader. If the man works for 
evil, then the naore successful he is the more he should be despised and condemned by all 
upright and far-seeing inen. To judge a man merely by success is an abhorrent wrong; and 
if the people at large habitually so judge men, if they grow to condone wickedness because 
the wicked man triumphs, they show their inability to understand that in the last analysis 
free institutions rest upon the character of citizenship, and that by such admiration of evil 
they prove themselves unfit for liberty. 

"The homely virtues of the household, the ordinary workaday virtues which make 
the woman a good housewife and housemother, which make the man a hard worker, a good 
husband and father, a good soldier at need, stand at the bottom of character. But of course 
many others must be added thereto if a State is to be not only free but great. Good citizen- 
ship is not good citizenship if exhibited only in the home. There remain the duties of the 
individual in relation to the State, and these duties are none too easy under the conditions 
which exist where the effort is made to carry on free government in a complex, industrial 
civilization. 

LITTLE USE FOR THE MERE IDEALIST. 

"The greatest thing the ordinary citizen, and, above all, the leader of ordinary citizens, 
h.as to remember in political life is that he must not be a sheer doctrinaire. The closet 
philosopher, the refined and cultured individual who from his library tells how men ought to 
be governed tinder ideal conditions, is of no use in actual governmental work; and the 
one-sided fanatic, and still more the mob leader, and the insincere man v.ffio to achieve 
power promises what by no possibility can be performed, are not merely useless but 
noxious. 

"The citizen must have high ideals, and yet he must be able to achieve them in practical 
fashion. No permanent good comes from aspirations so lofty that they have grown fantastic 
and have become impossible and indeed undesirable to realize. The impracticable visionary 
is far less often the guide and precursor than he is the embittered foe of the real reformer, of 
the man who, with stumblings and shortcomings, j^et does in some shape, in practical fashion, 
give effect to the hopes and desires of those who strive for better things. Woe to the empty 
phrase-maker, to the empty idealist, who, instead of making read}' the ground for the man 
of action, turns against him when he appears and hampers him as he does the work! More- 
over, the preacher of ideals must remember how sorry and contemptible is the figure which 
he will cut, how great the damage that he will do, if he does not himFelf, in his own life, 
strive measurably to realize the ideals that he preaches for others. Let him remember also 
that the worth of the ideal must be largely determined by the success with which it can in 
practice be realized. We should aV)hor the so-called "practical" men whose practicality 
assumes the shape of that peculiar h;iscness which finds its expression in disbelief in morality 
and decency, in disregard of high standards of living and conduct. Such a creature is the 
worst enemy of the body politic. But only less desirable as a citizen is his nominal 
opponent and real ally, the man of fantastic vision, who makes the impossible better forever 
the enemy of the possible good. 

"We can just as little afford to follow the doctrinaires of an e.xtreme individualism as 
the doctrinaires of ' n extreme socialism. Individual initiative, so far from being discouraged, 
should be stimulalcd; and yet we should remember thnt, as society develops and grows more 
complex, we continually find that things which once it was desirable to leave to individual 
initiative can, under the changed conditions, be performed with better results by common 
efTorts. It is quite impossible, and equally undesirable, to draw in theory a hard and fast 
line which shall always di\'ide the two sets of cases. This every one who is not cursed with 



CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC 359 

the pride of the closet philosopher will see, if he will only take the trouble to think about 
some of our commonest phenomena. For instance, when people live on isolated farms or in 
little hamlets, each house can be left to attend to its own drainage and water supply; but 
the mere multiplication of families in a given area produces new problems which, because 
they differ in size, are fovmd to differ not only in degree, but in kind from the old, and the 
questions of drainage and water supply have to be considered from the common standpoint. 
It is not a matter for abstract dogmatizing to decide when this point is reached; it is a 
matter to be tested by practical experiment. Much of the discussion about socialism and 
individualism is entirely pointless because of failure to agree on terminology. It is not 
good to be the slave of names. 

AN INDIVIDUALIST HIMSELF. 

"I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance and conviction, but it is a 
mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens 
acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action. 
The individualism which finds its expression in the abuse of physical force is checked very 
early in the growth of civilization, and we of to-day should in our turn strive to shackle or 
destroy that individualism which triumphs by greed and cunning, which exploits the weak 
by craft instead of ruling them by brutality. We ought to go with any man in the effort to 
bring about justice and the equality of opportunity, to turn the tool user more and more 
into the tool owner, to shift burdens so that they can be more equitably borne. The deaden- 
ing effect on any race of the adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic system could not be 
overstated; it would spell sheer destruction; it would produce grosser wrong and outrage, 
fouler immorality, than any existing system. But this does not mean that we may not with 
great advantage adopt certain of the principles professed by some given set of men who 
happen to call themselves Socialists; to be afraid to do so would be to make a mark of 
weakness on our part. 

Lincoln's idea of the equality of men. 

"But we should not take part in acting a lie any more than in telling a lie. We should 
not say that men are equal where they are not equal, nor proceed upon the assumption that 
there is an equality where it does not exist ; but we should strive to bring about a measurable 
equality, at least to the extent of preventing the inequality which is due to force or fraud. 
Abraham Lincoln, a man of the plain people, blood of their blood and bone of their bone, 
who all his life toiled and wrought and suffered for them, and at the end died for them, who 
always strove to represent them, who would never tell an untruth to or for them, spoke of 
the doctrine of equality with his usual mixture of idealism and sound common sense. He 
said (I omit what was of merely local significance) : ' I think the authors of the Declaration 
of Independence intended to include all men, but that they did not mean to declare all men 
equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, 
moral development or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they 
did consider all men created equal — equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not 
mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or 
yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. They meant to set up a 
standard maxim for free society which should be famiHar to all — constantly looked to, 
constantly labored for, and, even" though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, 
and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happi- 
ness and value of life to all people, everywhere.' 

" We are bound in honor to refuse to listen to those men who would make us desist from 
the effort to do away with the inequality which means injustice; the inequality of right, 
of opportunity, of privilege. We are bound in honor to strive to bring ever nearer the 
day when, as far as is humanly possible, we shall be able to realize the ideal that each 
man shall have an equal opporttmity to show the stuff that is in him by the way in which he 
renders service. There should, so far as possible, be equality of opportunity to render 
service ; but just so long as there is inequality of service there should pnd must be inequality 
of reward We may be sorry for the general, the painter, the artist, the worker m any 
profession or of any kind, whose misfortune rather than whose fault it is that he does his 
work ill. But the reward must go to the man who does his work well; for any other course 
is to create a new kino c^ prixilege, the privilege of folly and weakness; and special privilege 
is injustice, whatever form \^ takes. 



36o LECTURE BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 

LEVELING TO BE UPWARD. 

"To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have the 
reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable and upright is to say what is not true and 
cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. If a 
man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping 
hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try to carry him; and 
it is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come to 
those who shirk their work and to those who do it. 

"Let us, then, take into account the actual facts of life, and not be misled into follomng 
any proposal for achieving the millennium, for recreating the golden age, vmtil we have sub- 
jected it to hard-headed examination. On the other hand, it is foolish to reject a proposal 
merely because it is advanced by visionaries. If a given scheme is proposed, look at it on 
its merits, and, in considering it, disregard formulas. It does not matter in the least who 
proposes it, or why. If it seems good, try it. If it proves good, accept it; otherwise, reject 
it. There are plenty of men calling themselves Socialists with whom, up to a certain point, 
it is quite possible to work. If the next step is one which both we and they wish to take, 
why of course take it, without any regard to the fact that our views as to the tenth step may 
differ. But, on the other hand, keep clearly in mind that, though it has been worth while to 
take one step, this does not in the least mean that it may not be highly disadvantageous to 
take the next. It is just as foolish to refuse all progress because people demanding it desire 
at some points to go to absurd extremes as it would be to go to these absurd extremes 
simply because some of the measxires advocated by the extremists were wise. 

LIBERTY AND ITS BEST FRUITS. 

"The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride he will see 
to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own. Probably the best test 
of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities are treated in that 
country. Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of religion and opinion, but 
complete liberty for each man to lead his life as he desires, provided only that in so doing 
he does not wrong his neighbor. Persecution is bad because it is persecution, and without 
reference to which side happens at the moment to be the persecutor and which the persecuted. 
Class hatred is bad in just the same way, and without any regard to the individual who, at 
a given time, substitutes loyalty to a class for loyalty to the nation, or substitutes hatred 
of men because they happen to come in a certain social category, for judgment awarded 
them according to their conduct. Remember always that the same measure of condemna- 
tion should be extended to the arrogance which would look down upon or crush any man 
because he is poor, and to the envy and hatred which would destroy a man because he is 
wealthy. The over-bearing brutality of the man of wealth or power, and the envious and 
hateful malice directed against wealth or power, are really at root merely different mani- 
festations of the same quality, merely the two sides of the same shield. The man who, if 
born to wealth and power, exploits and ruins his less fortunate brethren is at heart the same 
as the greedy and violent demagogue who excites those who have not property to plunder 
those who have. The gravest wrong upon his country is inflicted by that man, whatever 
his station, who seeks to make his countrymen divide primarily on the line that separates 
class from class, occupation from occupation, men of more wealth from men of less wealth, 
instead of remembering that the only safe standard is that which judges each man on his 
worth as a man, whether he be rich or poor, without regard to his profession or to his 
station in life. Such is the only true democratic test, the only test that can with propriety 
be applied in a republic. There have been many republics in the past, both in what we 
call antiquity and in what we call the Middle Ages. They fell, and the prime factor in their 
fall was the fact that the parties tended to divide along the line that separates wealth from 
poverty. It made no difference which side was successful; it made no difference whether 
the republic fell under the rule of an oligarchy or the rule ofa mob. In either case, when 
once loyalty to a class had been substituted for loyalty to the republic, the end of the republic 
was at hand. There is no greater need to-day than the need to keep ever in mind the fact 
that the cleavage between right and wrong, between good citizenship and bad citizenship, 
runs at right angles to, and not parallel with, the lines of cleavage between clc-"-"- and class, 
between occupation and occupation. Ruin looks us in the face if we judge a man by his 
position instead of judging him by his conduct in that position. 



CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC 361 

TOLERANCE IN REPUBLICS. 

"In a republic, to be successful we must learn to combine intensity of conviction with a 
broad tolerance of difference of conviction. Wide differences of opinion in matters of 
religious, political and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be 
stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth. Bitter internecine hatreds, based on such 
differences, are signs, not of earnestness of belief, but of that fanaticism which, whether 
religious or anti-religious, democratic or anti-democratic, is itself but a manifestation of the 
gloomy bigotry which has been the chief factor in the downfall of so many, many nations. 

"Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, 
and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile 
to other citizens of the republic; that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape 
or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic. It makes no difference 
whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or anti-religious prejudice. 
The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of 
furthering his own interest. The very last thing that an intelhgent and self-respecting 
member of a democratic community should do is to rewai'd any public man because that 
public man says he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is 
not entitled, or will gratify some emotion or animosity which this private citizen ought not 
to possess. Let me illustrate this by one anecdote from my own experience. A number 
of years ago I was engaged in cattle ranching on the great plains of the western United 
States. There were no fences. The cattle wandered free, the ownership of each being 
determined by the brand ; the calves were branded with the brand of the cows they followed 
If on the roand-up an animal was passed by, the following year it would appear as an un- 
branded yearling, and was then called a maverick. By the custom of the country these 
ma\'ericks were branded with the brand of the man on whose range they were found. One 
day I was riding the range with a newly hired cowboy, and we came upon a maverick. We 
roped and threw it; then we built a little fire, took out a cinch-ring, heated it at the fire, 
and the cowboy started to put on the brand. I said tohim, 'It isSo-and-So's brand,' naming 
the man on whose range we happened to be. He answered, 'That's all right, boss, I know 
my business.' In another moment I said to him, 'Hold on, you are putting on my brand!' 
To which he answered, 'That's all right; I always put on the boss' brand.' I answered, 
' Oh, very well. Now you go straight back to the ranch and get what is owing to you; 
I don't need you any longer.' He jumped up and said, 'Why, what's the matter? I was 
putting on your brand.' And I answered, ' Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me you 
will steal from me.' 

MORALS IN PUBLIC LIFE. 

"Now, the same principle which applies in private life applies also in public life. If 
a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, 
you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something 
wrong against your interest. 

"So much for the citizenship of the individual in his relations to his family, to his 
neighbor, to the State. There remain duties of citizenship which the State, the aggregation 
of all the individuals, owes in connection with other States, with other nations. Let me 
say at once that I am no advocate of a foohsh cosmopolitanism. I believe that a man must 
be a good patriot before he can be, and as the only possible way of being, a good citizen of 
the world. Experience teaches us that the average man who protests that his international 
feeling swamps his national feeling, that he does not care for his country because he cares 
so much for mankind, in actual practice proves himself the foe of mankind; that the man 
who says that he does not care to be a citizen of any one country because he is a citizen 
of the world is in very fact usually an exceedingly undesirable citizen of whatever corner of 
the world he happens at the moment to be in. In the dim future all moral needs and mioral 
standards may change; but at present, if a man can view his own country and all other 
countries from the same level with tepid indifference, it is wise to distrust him, just as it is 
wise to distrust the man who can take the same dispassionate view of his wife and his 
mother. However broad and deep a man's sympathies, however intense his activities, he 
need have no fear that they will be cramped by love of his native land. 

_"No\y, this does not mean in the least that a man sliould not wish to do good outside 
of his native land. On the contrary, just as I think that the man who loves his family is 
more apt to be a good neighbor than the man who does not, so I think that the morst useful 
member of the family of nations is nomially a strongly patriotic nation. So far from 
patriotism being inconsistent with a proper regard for "the rights of other nations, I hold 

24 T, 



362 ORATION DELIVERED AT CHRISTIANIA, NORWAY 

that the true patriot, who is as jealous of the national honor as a gentleman of his own honor, 
will be careful to see that the nation neither inflicts nor suffers wrong, just as a gentleman 
scorns equally to wrong others or to suffer others to wrong him. I do not for one moment 
admit that political morality is different from private morality, that a promise made on the 
sttunp differs from a promise made in private life. I do not for one moment admit that a 
man should act deceitfully as a public servant in his dealings with other nations, any more 
than that he should act deceitfully in his dealings as a private citizen with other private 
citizens. I do not for one moment admit that a nation should treat other nations in a 
different spirit from that in which an honorable man would treat other men. 

"In practically applying this principle to the two sets of cases there is, of course, a great 
practical difference to be taken into account. We speak of international law; but inter- 
national law is something wholly different from private or municipal law, and the capital 
difference is that there is a sanction for the one and no sanction for the other; that there 
is an outside force which compels individuals to obey the one, while there is no such outside 
force to compel obedience as regards the other. International law will, I believe, as the gen- 
erations pass, grow stronger and stronger until in some way or other there develops the power 
to make it respected. But as yet it is only in the first formative period. As yet, as a rule, 
each nation is of necessity obHged to judge for itself in matters of vital importance between 
it and its neighbors, and actions must of necessity, where this is the case, be different from 
what they are where, as among private citizens, there is an outside force whose action is 
all-powerful and must be invoked in any crisis of importance. It is the duty of wise states- 
men, gifted with the power of looking ahead, to try to encourage and build up every move- 
ment which will substitute or tend to substitute some other agency for force in the settle- 
ment of international disputes. It is the duty of every honest statesman to try to guide the 
nation so that it shall not wrong any other nation. But as yet the great civilized peoples, 
if they are to be true to themselves and to the cause of humanity and civilization, must keep 
ever in mind that in the last resort they must possess both the will and the power to resent 
wrongdoing from others. The men who sanely believe in a lofty morality preach righteous- 
ness; but they do not preach weakness, whether among private citizens or among nations. 
We believe that our ideals should be high , but not so high as to make it impossible measixrably 
to realize them. We sincei-ely and earnestly believe in peace; but if peace and justice con- 
flict, we scorn the man who would not stand for justice though the whole world came in 
arms against him. 

"And now, my hosts, a word in parting. You and F belong to the only two repubUcs 
among the great Powers of the world. The ancient friendship between France and the 
United States has been, on the whole, a sincere and disinterested friendship. A calamity to 
you wovild be a sorrow to us. But it would be more than that. In the seething turmoil of 
the history of humanity certain nations stand out as possessing a peculiar power or charm, 
some special gift of beauty or wisdom or strength, which puts them among the immortals, 
which makes them rank forever with the leaders of mankind. France is one of these nations. 
For her to sink would be a loss to all the world. There are certain lessons of brilliance and 
of generous gallantry that she can teach better than any of her sister nations. When the 
French peasantry sang of Malbrook, it was to tell how the soul of this warrior- foe took flight 
upward through the laurels he had won. Nearly seven centuries ago, Froissart, writing 
of a time of dire disaster, said that the realm of France was never so stricken that there were 
not left men who would valiantly fight for it. You have had a great past. I believe that 
you will have a great future. Long may you carry yourselves proudly as citizens of a nation 
which bears a leading part in the teaching and upUfting of mankind." 



A WORLD LEAGUE OF PEACE. 

ORATION DELIVERED AT CHRISTIANIA, NORWAY, MAY 5, 1910. 

"It is with peculiar pleasure that I stand here to-day to express the deep appreciation 
I feel of the high honor conferred upon me by the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

"The gold medal which formed part of the prize I shall always keep, and I shall hand it 
on to my children as a precious heirloom. The sum of money provided as part of the prize 
by the wise generosity of the illustrious founder of this world-famous prize system, I did not, 
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, feel at liberty to keep. 

"I think it eminently just and proper that in most cases the recipient of the prize should 
keep for his own use the prize in its entirety. But in this case, while I did not act officially 



A WORLD LEAGUE OF PEACE 36^ 

as President of the United States, it was nevertheless only because I was President that I 
was enabled to act at all; and I felt that the money must be considered as having been 
given me in trust for the United States. 

"I therefore used it as a nucleus for a foimdation to forward the cause of industrial 
peace, as being well within the general purpose of your Committee; for in our complex 
industrial civilization of to-day the peace of righteousness and justice, the only kind of peace 
worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is among nations. 

"There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the 
world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to 
check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships. 

"We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as 
between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher 
level, with a broader spirit of brotherly good will one for another. 

"Peace is generally good in itself, but it is ne\'er the highest good vmless it comes as the 
handmaid of righteousness ; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for 
cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We 
despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life; 
but we despise no less the coward and the Aoluptuary. 

"No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see 
those that are dear to him siiffer wrong. No nation deser\es to exist if it permits itself to 
lose the stem and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the 
growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolong indulgence in luxttry and 
soft effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality. 

"Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give 
expi-ession to deeds or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Tenor prattled 
of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent ; and many a tyrant has 
called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. 

"Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use 
practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance toward it step 
by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right 
direction. 

"Now, having freely admitted the limitations to our work, and the qualifications to be 
borne in mind, I feel that I have the right to have my words taken seriously when I point 
out where, in my judgment, great advance can be made in the cause of international peace. 
I speak as a practical man, and whatever I now advocate I actually tried to do when 1 was, 
for the time being, the head of a great nation, and keenly jealous of its honor and interest. 
I ask other nations to do only what I should be glad to see my own nation do. 

"The advance can be made along several lines. First of all there can be treaties of 
arbitration. There are, of course. States so backward that a civilized community ought not 
to enter into an arbitration treaty with them, at least until we have gone much further than 
at present in obtaining some kind of international police action. 

"But all really civilized communities should have effective arbitration treaties among 
themselves. I believe that these treaties can cover almost all questions liable to arise 
between such nations, if they are drawn with the explicit agreement that each contracting 
party will respect the other's territory and its absolute sovereignty within that territory, and 
the equally explicit agreement that (aside from the very rare cases where the nation's honor 
is vitally concerned) all other possible subjects of controversy will be submitted to arbitration. 

"Such a treaty would insure peace unless one party deliberately violated it. Of course, 
as yet there is no adequate safeguards against such deliberate violation, but the estabHshment 
of a sufficient number of these treaties would go a long way toward creating a world opinion 
which would finally find expression in the provision of methods to forbid or punish any such 
violation. 

"Secondly, there is the further development of The Hague Tribunal, of the work of the 
conferences and courts at The Hague. It has been well said that the first Hague Conference 
framed a Magna Charta for the nations; it set before us an ideal which has already to some 
extent been realized, and toward the full realization of which we can all steadily strive. The 
second Conference made further progress; the third should do yet more. 

"Meanwhile the American Government has more than once tentatively suggested 
methods for completing the Court of Arbitral Justice, constituted at the second Hague Con- 
ference, and for making it effective. It is earnestly to he hoped that the various Govern- 
ments of Europe, working with those of America and of Asia, shall set themselves seriously 
to the task of de\ising some method which shall accomplish this result. 

"If I may venture the suggestion, it would be well for the statesmen of the world, in plan- 



364 ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 

ning for the erection of tliis -R'orld court, to study what has been done in the United States 
by the Supreme Court. I cannot help thinking that the Constitution of the United States, 
notably in the establishment of the Supreme Court and in the methods adopted for securing 
peiice and good relations among and between the different States, offers certain valuable 
analogies to what should be striven for in order to obtain, through the Hague courts and 
conferences, a species of world federation for international peace and justice. 

"There are, of course, fundamental differences between what the United States Con- 
stitution does and what we should even attempt at this time to obtain at The Hague; but 
the methods adopted in the American Constitution to prevent hostilities between the States, 
and to secure the supremacy of the Federal Court in certain classes of cases, are well worth 
the study of those who seek at The Hague to obtain the same results on a world scale. 

"In the third place, something should be done as soon as possible to check the growth 
of armaments, especially naval armaments, by international agreement. No one power 
could or should act by itself; for it is eminently undesirable, from the standpoint of the 
peace of i-ighteousness, that a power which really does beHeve in peace should place itself at 
the mercy of some rival which may at bottom have no such belief and no intention of acting 

"But, granted sincerity of purpose, the great Powers of the world should find no insur- 
mountable difficulty in reaching an agreement which would put an end to the present costly 
and growing extravagance of expenditure on naval armaments. An agreement merely to 
limit the size of ships would have been very useful a few years ago, and would still be of use; 
but the agreement should go much further. 

"Finally, it would be a master stroke if those great Powers honestly bent on peace 
would form a League of Peace, not only to keep the peace among themselves, but to prevent, 
by force if necessary, its being broken by others. 

"The supreme difficulty in connection with developmg the peace work of Ihe Hague 
arises from the lack of any executive power, of any police power to enforce the decrees of the 
court. In any community of any size the authority of the courts rests upon actual or 
potential force; on the existence of a police, or on the knowledge that the able-bodied men 
of the country are both ready and willing to see that the decrees of judicial and legislative 
bodies are put into effect. 

"In new and wild communities where there is violence, an honest man must protect him- 
self; and imtil other means of securing his safety are devised, it is both fooHsh and wickedto 
persuade him to surrender his arms while the men who are dangerous to the community 
retain theirs He should not renounce the right to protect himself by his own efforts until 
the community is so organized that it can effectively reHeve the individual of the duty of 

putting down violence. , , ^ . -^ u- .-i .n, 

"So it is with nations. Each nation must keep well prepared to defend itself until the 
establishment of some form of international poHce power, competent and willing to prevent 
violence as between nations. As things are now, such power to command peace throughout 
the world could best be assured by some combination between those great nations which 
sincerely desire peace and have no thought themselves of committing aggressions. The 
combination might at first be only to secure peace within certain definite hmits and certain 
definite conditions; but the ruler or statesman who should bring about such a combination 
would have earned his place in history for all time and his title to the gratitude of all man- 
kind." 

THE WORLD MOVEMENT. 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, MAY 12, 1910. 

"I very highly appreciate the chance to address the University of Beriin in the year that 
closes its first centenary of existence. It is difficult for you in the Old World fully to appre- 
ciate the feelings of a man who comes from a nation still in the making to a country with an 
immemorial historic past, and especially is this the case when that country, with its ancient 
past behind it, vet looks with proud confidence into the futurt, and in the present shows all 
the abounding viror of lusty youth. Such is the case with Germany. More than a thousand 
years haAe passed since the Roman Empire of the West became m fact a German Empire. 
'Throughout medijpvnl times the Empire and the Papacy were the two central features in 
the history of the Occident. With the Ottos and the Henrys began the slow nse of that 
Western life which has shaped modem Europe, and, therefore, ultimately the whole modem 
world Their task was to organize society and to keep it from crumbhng to pieces. 1 hey 



I 



THE WORLD MOVEMENT 365 

were castle builders, city founders, road makers; they battled to bring order out of the 
seething' turbulence around them, and at the same time they first beat back heathendom 
and then slov>lv wrested from it its possessions. 

"After the downfall of Rome and the breaking in sunder of the Roman Empire the first 
real crj'stallization of the forces that were working for a new uplift of civilization in western 
Eui-ope was round the Karling House, and, above all, round the great Emperor, Karl the 
Great, the seat of whose empire was at Aachen. Under the Karlings the Arab and the Moor 
were driven back beyond the Pyrenees, the last of the old heathen Germans were forced into 
Christianity and the Avars, wild horsemen from the Asian steppes, who had long held tented 
dominion in Middle Europe, were utterly destroyed. With the break-up of the Karling 
Empire came chaos once more, and a fresh inrush of savagery; Vikings from the frozen 
North, and new hordes of outlandish riders from Asia. It was the early emperors of Ger- 
many proper who quelled these barbarians; in their time Dane and Norseman and Magyar 
became Christians, and most of the Slav peoples as well, so that Europe began to take on a 
shape which we can recognize to-day. Since then the centuries have rolled by, with strange 
alternations of fortune, now well-nigh barren, and again great with German achievement in 
arms and in government, in science and the arts. The centre of power shifted hither and 
thither within German lands; the great house of Hohenzollem rose, the house which has at 
last seen Germany spring into a commanding position in the very forefront among the nations 
of mankind 

GERMAN ELEMENT IN AMERICA. 

"To this ancient land, with its glorious past and splendid present, to this land of many 
memories and of eager hopes, I come from a young nation, which is by blood akin to and 
yet different from each of the great nations of Middle and Western Europe; which has 
inherited or acquired much from each, but is changing and developing every inheritance and 
acquisition into something new and strange. The German strain in our blood is large, for 
almost from the beginning there has been a large German element among the successive 
waves of newcomers whose children's children have been and are being fused into the Ameri- 
can nation, and I myself trace my origin to that branch of the Low Dutch stock which raised 
Holland out of the North Sea. Moreover, we have taken from you, not only much of tl:e 
blood that rtms through our veins, but much of the thought that shapes our minds. For 
generations American scholars have flocked to yom- universities, and, thanks to the wise 
foresight of his Imperial Majesty the present Emperor, the intimate and friendly connection 
between the two countries is now in everj^ way closer than it has ever been before. ^ 

"Germanyis pre-eminently acountryin which the world movement of to-day in all of its 
multitudinous aspects is plainly visible. The life of this university covers the peiiod during 
which that movem.ent has spread imtil it is felt throughout every continent, while its velocity 
has been constantly accelerating, so that the face of the world has changed, and is now 
changing, as ne\-er before. It is, therefore, fit and appropriate here to speak on this subject. 

"When, in the slow procession of the ages, man was developed on this planet, the change 
worked by his appearance was at first slight. Further ages passed, while he groped and 
struggled by infinitesimal degrees upward through the lower grades of savagery; for the 
general law is that life which is advanced and complex, whatever its nature, changes more 
quickly than simp.sr and less advanced forms. The life of savages changes and advances 
with extreme slov.^ness, and groups of savages influence O'le another but little. _ The first 
rudimentary beginnings of that complex life of communities which we call civilization 
marked a period when man had already long been by far the most important creature on 
the planet. The history of the living world had become, in fact, the history of man, and 
therefore something totally different in kind as well as in degree from what it had been before. 
There are interesting analogies between what has gone on in the development of life generally 
and what has gone on in the development of human society, and these I shall discuss else- 
where. But the differences are profoimd and go to the root of things. 

EARLY LOCAL MOVEMENTS. 

"Throughout their early stages the movements of civilization — for, properly speaking, 
there was no one movement — were very slow, were local in space and were partial in the 
sense that each developed along but few lines. Of the numberless years that covered the.se 
early stages we have no record. They were the years that saw such extraordinary discov- 
eries and inventions as fire, and the wheel, and the bow and the domestication of animals. 
So local were these inventions that at the present day there yet linger savage tribes, still fixed 
in the half bestial Hfe of an infinitely remote past, who know none of them except fire — and 



2,66 ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 

the discovery and use of fire may ha^'e marked, not the beginning of civilization, but the 
beginning of the savagery which separated man fiom brute. 

■' Even after civiUzation and culture had achieved a relatively high position they were still 
purely local, and from this fact subject to violent shocks. Modern research has shown the 
existence in prehistoric, or at least proto-historic, times of many peoples who, in given locali- 
ties, achieved a high and peculia,r culture, a culture that was later so completely destroyed 
that it is diificult to say what, if any, traces it left on the subsequent cultures out of which we 
have developed our own; while it is also difficult to say exactly how much any one of these 
cultures influenced any other. In many cases, as where invaders with weapons of bronze or 
iron conquered the neolithic peoples, the higher civilization completely destroyed the lower 
civilization, or barbarism, with which it came in contact. Inothercases, while superiority in 
culture gave its possessors at the beginning a marked military and governmental superiority 
over the neighboring peoples, yet sooner or later there accompanied it a certain softness of 
enervating quality which left the cultured folk at the mercy of the stark and greedy neighbor- 
ing tribes, in whose savage souls cupidity gradually overcame terror and awe. Then the 
people that had been struggling upward would be engulfed , and the leveling waves of barbarism 
wash over them. But we are not yet in position to speak definitely on these matters. It is 
only the researches of recent years that have enabled us so much as to guess at the course of 
events in prehistoric Greece; while as yet we can hardly even hazard a guess as to how, for 
instance, the Hallstadt culture rose and fell, or as to the history and fate of the builders or 
those strange ruins of which Stonehenge is the type. 

MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT. 

'The first civilization which left behind them clear records rose in that hoary historic 
past which geologically is part of the immediate present — and which is but a span's length 
from the present, even w^hen compared only with the length of time that man has lived on this 
planet. These first civilizations were those which rose in Mesopotamia and the Nile valley 
some six or eight thousand years ago. As far as we can see, they were well-nigh independent 
centres of cultural development, and our knowledge is not such at present as to enable us to 
connect either with the early cultural movements in so\ithwestern Europe on the one hand, or 
in India on the other, or with that Chinese civilization which has been so profoundly affected by 
Indian influences. 

"Compared with the civilizations with which we are best acquainted, the striking feature 
in the Mesopotamian and Nilotic civilizations were the length of time they endured and their 
comparative changelessness. The kings, priests, and peoples who dwelt by the Nile or Eu- 
]ihrates are found thinking much the same thoughts, doing much the same deeds, leaving at 
least very similar records, while time passes in tens of centuries. Of course there was change ; 
of course there was action and reaction in influence between them and their neighbors ; and 
the movement of change, of development, material, mental, spiritual, was much faster than a 
thing that had occurred dining the eons of mere savagery. But in contradistinction to modern 
times the movement was very slow indeed, and, moreoxer, in each case it was strongly 
localized; while the field of endeavor was narrow. There were certain conquests by man 
over nature; there were certain conquests in the domain of pure intellect; there were certain 
extensions which spread the area of civilized mankind. But it would be hard to speak of it 
as a "world movement' at all; for by far the greater part of the habitable globe was not only 
unknown, but its existence unguessed at, so far as peoples with any civilization whatsoever 
were concerned. 

"With the downfall of these ancient civilizations there sprang into prominence those 
jicoples with whom our own cult ural history may be said to begin. Those ideas and influences 
in our lives which we can consciously trace back at all are in the great majority of instances 
to be traced to the Jew, the Greek, or the Roman; and the ordinary man, when he speaks of 
the nations of antiquity, has in mind specifically these three peoples — although, judged even 
by the history of which we have record, theirs is a very modern antiquity indeed. 

"The case of the Jew was quite exceptional. He was a small nation, of little more con- 
quence than the sister nations of Moab and Damascus, until all three, and the other petty 
states of the country, fell under the yoke of the alien. Then he survived, while all his fellows 
died. In the spiritiial domain he contribvited a religion which has been the most potent of 
all factors in its efl"ect on the subsequent history of mankind ; but none of his other contribu- 
tions compare with the legacies left us by the Greek and the Roman. 

GR^CO-ROMAN CULTURE. 

"The Greco-Roman world saw a civilization far more brilliant, far more varied and intense, 
than any that had gone before it, and one that affected a far larger share of the world's surface. 



THE WORLD MOVEMENT ^67 

For the first time there began to be something which at least foreshadowed a 'world move- 
ment' in the sense that it affected a considerable portion of the world's surface, and that it 
represented what was incomparably the most important of all that was happening in world his- 
tory at the time. In breadth and depth the field of intellectual interest had greatly broadened 
at the same time that the physical area affected by the civilization had similarly extended. 
Instead of a civilization affecting only one river valley or one nook of the Mediterranean, 
there was a civilization which directly or indirectly influenced mankind from the Desert of 
Sahara to the Baltic, from the Atlantic Ocean to the westernmost mountain chain that springs 
from the Himalayas. Throughout most of this region there began to work certain influences 
which, though with widely varying intensity, did nevertheless tend to affect a large portion 
of mankind. In many of the forms of science, in almost all the forms of art, there was great 
activity. In addition to great soldiers there were great administrators and statesmen whose 
concern was with the fundamental questions of social and civil life. Nothing like the width 
and variety of intellectual achievement and understanding had ever before been known ; and 
for the first time we come across great intellectual leaders, great philosophers and writers,whose 
works are a part of all that is highest in modern thought, whose writings are as live to-day as 
when they were first issued ; and there were others of even more daring and original temper, 
a philosopher like Democritus, a poet like Lucretius, whose minds leaped^ahead through the 
centuries and saw what none of their contemporaries saw, but who were so hampered by their 
surroundings that it was physically impossible for them to leave to the later world much con- 
crete addition to knowledge. The civilization was one of comparatively rapid change, viewed 
by the standard of Babylon and Memphis. There was incessant movement; and, moreo\er, 
the whole system went down with a crash to seeming destruction after a period short com- 
pared with that covered by the reigns of a score of Egyptian dynasties, orwiththe time that 
elapsed between a Babylonian defeat by Elam and a war sixteen centuries later which fully 
avenged it. 

"This civilization flourished with brilliant splendor. Then it fell. In its northern seats 
it was overwhelmed by a wave of barbarism from among those half-savage peoples from 
whom you and I, my hearers, trace our descent. In the south and east it was destroyed 
later, but far more thoroughly by invaders of an utterly different type. Both conquests were 
of great importance ; but it was the northern conquest which in its ultimate effects was of by 
far the greatest importance. 

THE DARK AGES. 

" With the advent of the Dark Ages the movement of course ceased, and it did not begin 
anew for many centuries ; while a thousand years passed before it was once more in full swing so 
far as European civilization, so far as the world civilization of to-day, is concerned. During 
those centuries the civilized world, in our acceptation of the term, was occupied, as its chief 
task, in slowly climbing back to the position from which it had fallen after the age of the 
Antonines. Of course a general statement like this must be accepted with qualifications. 
There is no hard and fast line between one age or period and another, and in no age is either 
progress or retrogression universal in all things. There were many points in which the 
Middle Ages, because of the simple fact that they were Christian, surpassed the brilliant 
pagan civiUzation of the past; and there are some points in which the civiHzation that suc- 
ceeded them has sunk below the level of the ages which saw such mighty masterpieces of 
poetry, of architecture — especially cathedral architecture — and of serene spiritual and force- 
ful lay leadership. But they were centuries of violence, rapine and cruel injustice; and 
truth was so little heeded that the noble and daring spirits who sought it, especially in its 
scientific form, did so in deadly peril of the fagot and the halter. 

RISE OF ISLAM. 

"During this period there were several very important extra-European movements, one 
or two of which deeply affected Europe. Islam arose, and conquered far and wide, uniting 
fundamentally different races into a brotherhood of feeling which Christianity has never 
been able to rival, and at the time of the Crusades profoundly influencing European culture. 
It produced a civilization of its own, brilliant and here and there useful, but hopelessly 
limited when compared with the civilization of which we ourselves are the heirs. The great 
cultured peoples of southeastern and eastern Asia continued their checkered development 
totally unaffected by, and without knowledge of, any European influence. 

"Throughout the whole period there came against Europe, out of the unknown wastes 
of central Asia, an endless succession of strange and terrible conqueror races who.se mission 
was mere destruction — Hun and Avar, Mongol, Tartar and Turk. These fierce and squalid 



368 ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 

tribes of warrior horsemen flailed mankind with red scourges, wasted and destroyed, and 
then vanished from the ground they had overrim. But in no way worth noting did they 
count in the advance of mankind. 

PRINTING AND THE NEW WORLD. 

"At last, a little over four hundred years ago, the mo\-ement toward a world civilization 
took up its interrupted march. The beginning of the modern movement mav roughly be 
taken as synchronizing with the disco\ery of piinting, and with that series of bold sea ven- 
tures which culminated in the discovery of America; and after these two epochal feats had 
begun to produce their full effects in material and intellectual life, it became inevitable that 
ci\ilization should thereafter differ not only in degree, but even in kind from all that had 
gone befoi-e. Immediately after the voyag-e of Columbus and Vasco da Gama there began a 
tremendous religious ferment; the awakening of intellect went hand in hand with the moral 
uprising; the great names of Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and Galileo show that the mind of 
man was breaking the fetters that had cramped it; and for the first time experimentation 
was used as a check upon observation and theorization. Since then, century by century, 
the changes ha\-e increased in rapidity and complexity, and have attained their maximum 
in both respects during the century just past. Instead of being directed by one or two 
dominant peoples, as was the case with all similar movements of the past, the new m.ovement 
was shared by many different nations. From every standpoint it has been of infinitely 
greater moment than anything hitherto seen. Not in one but in many different peoples 
there has been extraordinary growth in wealth, in population, in power of organization, and 
in mastery over mechanical activity and natui-al resources. All of this has been accompanied 
and signalized by an immense outburst of energy and restless initiative. The result is as 
varied as it is sti4king. 

FIRST REAL WORLD MOVEMENT. 

"In the first place, representatives of this civilization, by their conquest of space, were 
enabled to spread into all the practically vacant continents, while at the same time, by their 
triumphs in oi-ganization and mechanical invention, they acquired an unheard-of niiUtary 
superiority as compared with their former rivals. To these two facts is primarily due the 
further fact that for the fir-st time there is i-eally something that approaches a world cix'iliza- 
tion, a world mo\-ement. The spr-ead of the European peoples since the days of Ferdinand 
the Catholic and Ivan the Terrible has been across every sea and over every continent. In 
places the conquests have been ethnic ; that is, there has been a new wandering of the peoples, 
and new commonwealths have sprung up in which tlie people are entirely or mainly of Euro- 
peanblood. This is what happened in the temperate and sub- tropical regions of the Western 
Hemisphere, in Australia, in portions of northei~n Aria and southei-n Africa. In other places 
the conquest has been pui-ely political, the Europeans rep:-esen(ing for the most part merely a 
small caste of soldiers and administr-ators, as in most of tropical Asia and Africa, and in much 
of tropical America. Finally, here and there instances occur where ther-e has been no conquest 
at all, but where an alien people is profoundly and radically changed by the mere impact 
of Western civilization. The most extraordinary instance of this, of course, is Japan, for 
Japan's growth and change during the last half-century has been in many ways the most 
striking phenomenon of all history. Intensely proud of her past history, intensely loyal 
to certain of her past traditions, sne has yet with a single effort wrenched herself free from 
all hampering ancient tics, and with a bound has taken her place among the leading civilized 
nations of mankind. 

"There are, of course, many grades between these different types of influence, but the 
net outcome of what has occurr-ed during the last four centuries "is that ci\-ilization of the 
European type now exercises a more or less profound effect over practically the entire world. 
There are nooks and corners to which it has not yet penetrated, but there is at present no 
large space of teiTitory in which the general movement of civilized activity does not make 
itself more or less felt. This represents something wholly diffei-ent from what has ever hith- 
erto been seen. In the greatest days of Roman dominion the influence of Rome was felt 
over only a relatively small portion of the world's surfnce. Over much the larger part of 
the world the process of change and development was absolutely unaffected by anything that 
occtirred in the Roman Empii-e, and those communities the play of whose influence was felt 
in action and reaction and in interaction among themselves were grouped immediately 
arormd the Mediterranean. Now, however, the whole woiid is bound together as ne^•er 
before; the bonds are sometimes those of hatred rather than love, but they are bonds 
nevertheless. 



THE WORLD MOVEMENT 



PEOPLES IN CLOSER BONDS. 



"Frowning or hopeful, every man of leadership in any line of thought or effort must 
now look beyond the limits of his own country. The student of sociology may live in Berlin 
or St.. Petersbvu-g, Rome or London, or he may live in Melbourne or San Francisco or Buenos 
Ayres ; but in whatever city he li\'es, he must pay heed to the studies of men who live in e..cii 
of the' other cities. When in America we study labor problems and attempt to deal with 
subjects such as life insurance for wage-workers, we turn to see what you do here in Germany, 
and we also turn to see what the far-off Commonwealth of New Zealand is doing. When a 
great German scientist is warring against the most dreaded enemies of mankind, creatures of 
infinitesimal size which the microscope ie\eals in his blood, he ma y_ spend his holidays of 
studv in Central Africa or in Eastern Asia; and he must know what is accomplished in the 
laboratoiies of Tokio, just as he must know the details of that practical application of science 
which has changed the Isthinus of Panama from a death-trap into what is almost a health 
resort. Every progressive in China is striving to introduce Western methods of education 
and administration, and hundreds of European and American books are now translated into 
Chinese. The influence of European governmental principles is strikinglj^ illustrated by the 
fact that admiration for them has broken down the iron barriers of Moslem conserva- 
tism, so that their introduction has become a burning question in Turkey and Persia; 
while the very tmrest, the impatience of European or American control, in India, Egypt or 
the Philippines takes the form of demanding that the go\'ernment be assimilated more 
closely to what it is in England or the United States. The deeds and works of any great 
statesman, the preachings of any great ethical, social or political teacher now find echoes 
in both hemispheres and in every continent. From a new discovery in science to a new 
method of combating or applpng socialism, there is no movement of note which can take 
place in any part of the globe without powerfully affecting masses of people in Europe, 
America and Australia, in Asia and Africa. For weal or for woe, the peoples of mankind 
are knit together far closer than ever before. 

CONQUEST OF NATURAL FORCES. 

"So much for the geographical side of the expansion of modern civilization. But 
only a few of the many and intense activities of modern civilization have found their expres- 
sion on this side. The movement has been just as striking in its conquest over natural forces, 
in its searching inquiry into and about the soul of things. 

"The conquest over Nature has included an extraordinary increase in every form of 
knowledge of the world we live in, and also an extraordinary increase in the power of utilizing 
the forces of Nature. In both directions the advance has been very great during the past 
four or five centuries, and in both directions it has gone on with ever increasing rapidity 
during the Inst century. After the great age of Rome had passed, the boundaries of knowl- 
edge shrank, and in rnany cases it was not until well-nigh our own times that her domain 
was once again pushed loeVond the ancient landmarks. About the year 150^ A. D., Ptolemy, 
the geographer, published his map of central Africa and the sources of the Nile, and this rnap 
was more accurate than any which we had as late as 1S50 A. D. More was known of physical 
science, and more of the truth about the physical world was guesssed at, in the days of Pliny, 
than was known or guessed until the modern movement began. The case was the same as 
regards military science. At the close of the Middle Ages the weapons were what they had 
always been — sword, shield, bow and spear; and any improvement in them was more than 
offset by the loss in knowledge of military organization, in the science of war, and in military 
leadership since the days of Hannibal and Caesar. A hundred years ago, when this Univer- 
sity was founded, the methods of transporation did not differ in the essentials from what 
they had been among the highly ci\aHzed nations of antiquity. Travelers and merchandise 
went by land in wheeled vehicles or on beasts of burden, and by sea in boats propelled by 
sails or by oars; and news was conveyed as it always had been conveyed. What improve- 
ments there had been had been in degree only and not in kind ; and in some respects there 
had been retrogression rather than advance. There were many parts of_ Europe where the 
roads were certainly wo-se than the old Roman postroads; and the Mediterranean Sea, for 
instance, was bv no me?ns as well policed as in the days of Trajan. Now steam and electri- 
city have worked a complete revolution; and the resulting immensely^ increased ease_ of 
communication has in its turn completely changed all the physical questions of human life. 
A voyage from Egypt to England was nearly as serious an affair in the eighteenth century 
as in the second; and the news communications between the two lands were not materially 
improved. A graduate of your University to-day can go to mid-Asia of mid-Africa v.-iih 
far less consciousness of performing a feat of note than would have been the case a hundred 



370 ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 

years ago with a student who visited Sicily and Andalusia. Moreover, the invention and use 
of machinery run by steam or electricity have worked a revolution in industry as great as the 
revolution in transportation; so that here again the difference between ancient and modem 
civilization is one not merely of degree, but of kind. In many vital respects the huge modern 
city differs more from all preceding cities than any of these differed one from the other; and 
the giant factory town is of and by itself one of the most formidable problems of modern life. 

REGARD FOR USE AND WASTE. 

"Steam and electricity, have given the race dominion over land and water such as it 
never had before; and now the conquest of the air is directly impending. As books preserve 
thovight through time, so the telegraph and the telephone transmit it through the space they 
annihilate, and therefore minds are swayed one by another without regard to the limitations 
of space and time which formerly forced each community to work in comparative isolation. 
It is the same with the body as with the brain. The machinery of the factory and the farm 
enormouly multiplies ^bodily skill and vigor. Countless trained intelligences are at work 
to teach us how to avoid or counteract the effects of waste. Of course some of the agents in 
the modem scientific development of natural resources deal with resources of such a kind that 
their development means their destruction, so that exploitation on a grand scale means an 
intense rapidity of development purchased at the cost of a speedy exhaustion. The enor- 
mous and constantly^ increasing output of coal and iron necessarily means the approach of 
the day when our children's children, or their children's children, shall dwell in an ironless 
age — and, later on, in an age without coal — and will have to try to invent or develop new 
sources for the production of heat and use of energy. But as regards many another natural 
resource, scientific civilization teaches us how to preserve it through use. The best use of 
field and forest will leave them decade by decade, century by century, more fruitful; and 
we have barely begun to use the indestructible power that comes from harnessed water. 
The conquests of surgery, of medicine, the conquests in the entire field of hygiene and sanita- 
tion, have been literally marvelous; the advances in the past century or two have been over 
more ground than was covered during the entire previous history of the human race. 

"The advances in the realm or pure intellect have been of equal note, and they have 
been both intensi\e and extensive. Great virgin fields of learning and wisdom have been 
discovered by the few, and at the same time knowledge has spread among the many to as 
degree never dreamed of before. Old men among us have seen in their own generation the 
rise of thefirst rational science of the evolution of life. The astronomer and the chemist, the 
psychologist and the historian, and all their brethren in many different fields of wide en- 
deavor, work with a training and knowledge and method which are in effect instru- 
rnents of precision, differentiating their labors from the labors of their predecessors as the 
rifle is differentiated from the bow. 

"The play of new forces is as evident in the moral and spiritual world as in the world 
of the mind and the body. Forces for good and forces for evil are everywhere evident, each 
acting with a hundred or a thousand fold the intensity with which it acted in former ages. 
Over the whole earth the swing of the pendulum grows more and more rapid, the mainspring 
coils and spreads at a rate constantly quickening, the whole world movement is of constantly 
accelerating velocity. 

MODERN DANGERS. 

" In this movement there are signs of much that bodes ill. The machinery is so highly 
geared, the tension and strain are so great, the effort and the output have alike so increased, 
that there is cause to dread the ruin that would come from any great accident, from any 
breakdown, and also the ruin that may come from the mere wearing out of the machine itself. 
The only previous civilization with which our modem civilization can be in any way compared 
is that period of Gra;co-Roman civilization extending, say, from the Athens of Themistocles 
to the Rome of Marcus Aurelius. Many of the forces and tendencies which were then at work 
are at work now. Knowledge, luxury and refinement, wide material conquests, territorial 
administration on a vast scale, an increase in the mastery of mechanical appliances and in 
applied science — all the.se_ mark our civilization as they marked the wonderful civilization 
that flourished in the Mediterranean lands 20 centuries ago; and they preceded the douTifall 
of the older civilization. Yet the differences are many and some of them are quite as'striking 
as the similarities. The single fact that the old civilization was based upon slavery shows 
the chasm that separates the two. Let me point out one further and very significant differ- 
ence in the development of the two civilizations, a difference so obvious that it is astonishing 
that it has not been dwelt upon by men of letters. 



THE WORLD MOVEMENT 371 

MUST KEEP "fighting EDGE." 

"One of the prime dangers of civilization has ahvays been its tendency to cause the loss 
of the virile fighting virtues, of the fighting edge. When men get too comfortable and lead 
too luxurious Hves there is always danger lest the softness eat like an acid into their manliness 
of fibre. The barbarian, because of the very conditions of his life, is forced to keep and de- 
velop certain hardy qualities which the man of civiHzation tends to lose, whether he be cWk, 
factory hand, merchant or even a certain type of farmer. Now, I will not assert that in 
modem civilized society these tendencies have been wholly overcome, but there has been a 
much more successful effort to overcome them than was the case in the early civilizations. 
This is curiously shown by the military history of the Graeco-Roman period as compared 
with the history of the last four or five centuries here in Europe and among nations of Euro- 
pean descent. In the Grecian and Roman military history the change was steadily from a 
citizen army to an army of mercenaries. In the days of the early greatness of Athens, 
Thebes and Sparta, in the days when the Roman republic conquered what world it knew, 
the armies were filled with citizen soldiers. But gradually the citizens refused to ser\-e in 
the armies or became unable to render good service. The Greek states described by Poly- 
bius, with but few exceptions, hired others to do their fighting for them. The Romans of 
the days of Augustus had utterly ceased to furnish any cavalry, and were rapidly ceasing to 
furnish any infantry, to the legions and cohorts. When the civiHzation came to an end, 
there were no longer citizens in the ranks of the soldiers. The change from the citizen army 
to the army of mercenaries had been completed. 

OURS CITIZEN ARMIES. 

"Now, the exact reverse has been the case with us in modern times. A few centuries 
ago the mercenary soldier was the principal figure in most armies, and in great numbers of 
cases the mercenary soldier was an alien. In the wars of religion in France, in the Thirty 
Years ' War in Germany, in the wars that immediately thereafter marked the beginning of the 
break-up of the great Polish Kingdom, the regiments and brigades of foreign soldiers formed 
a striking and leading feature in every army. Too often the men of the country in which the 
fighting took place played merely the ignoble part of victims, the burghers and peasants ap- 
pearing in but limited numbers in the mercenary armies by which they were plundered. 
Gradually this has all changed tmtil now practically every army is a citizen army, and the 
mercenary has almost disappeared, while the army exists on a vaster scale than ever before 
in history. This is so among the military monarchies of Europe. In our own Civil War of 
the United States the same thing occurred, peaceful people as we are. At that time more 
than two generations had passed since the War of Independence. During the whole of that 
period the people had been engaged in no Hfe and death struggle; and yet, when the Civil 
War broke out, and after some costly and bitter lessons at the beginning, the fighting spirit 
of the people was shown to better advantage than ever before.' The war was peculiarly a 
war for a principle, a war waged by each side for an ideal, and while faults and shortcomings 
were plentiful among the combatants, there was comparatively little sordidness of motive 
or conduct. In such a giant struggle, where across the warp of so many interests is shot the 
woof of so many purposes, dark strands and bright, strands sombre and briUiant, are always 
intertwined; inevitably there was corruption here and there in the Civil War; but all the 
leaders on both sides, and the great majority of the enormous masses of fighting men wholly 
disregarded^ and were wholly uninfluenced by pecuniary considerations. There were, of 
course, foreigners who came over to serve as soldiers of fortune for money or for love of ad- 
venture ; but the foreign-born citizens served in much the same proportion as and from the 
same motives as the native-born. Taken as a whole, it was, even more than the Revolu- 
tionary War, a true citizen fight, and the armies of Grant and Lee were as emphatically 
citizen armies as Athenian, Theban or Spartan armies in the great age of Greece, or as a 
Roman army in the days of the Republic. 

POLITICS PURER. 

"Another striking contrast in the course of modern civilization as compared with the 
later stages of the Graeco-Roman or classic civilization is to be fovmd in the relations of wealth 
and politics. In classic times, as the civilization advanced toward its zenith, politics became 
a recognized means of accumulating great wealth. Caesar was again and again on the verge 
of bankruptcy; he spent an enormous fortune; and he recouped himself by the money which 
he made out of his poHtical-military career. Augustus established Imperial Rome on firm 
foundations by the use Ue «iade of the huge fortune he had acquired by plunder. What a 



372 ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN 

contrast is offered by the careers of Washington and Lincoln ! There were a few exceptions in 
ancient days; but the immense majority of the Greeks and the Romans, as their civilization 
cixlminated, accepted money-making on a large scale as one of the incidents of a successful 
public career. Now all of this is in sharp contrast to what has happened within the last two 
or three centulies. During this time there has been a steady growth away from the theory 
that money-making is permissible in an honorable public career. In this respect the standard 
has been constantly elevated, and things which statesmen had no hesitation in doing three 
centuries or two centuries ago, and which did not seriously hurt a public career even a century 
ago, are now utterly impossible. Wealthy men still exercise a large, and sometimes an im- 
proper, influence in politics, but it is apt to be an indirect influence ; and in the advanced 
states the mere suspicion that the wealth of public men is obtained or added to as an incident 
of their public careers will bar them from public life. Speaking generally, wealth may very 
greatly influence modern political life, but it is not acquired in political life. Thecoloninl 
administrators, German or American, French or English, of this generation lead careers which 
as compared with the careers of other men of like ability, show too little rather than too much 
regard for money-making; and literally a world scandal would be caused by condtxct which 
a Roman proconsul would have regarded as moderate, and which would not have been 
especially uncommon even in the administration of England a century and a half ago. On 
the whole the great statesmen of the last few generations have been either men of moderate 
means, or, if men of wealth, men whose wealth was diminished rather than increased by their 
public services. 

"I have dwelt on these points merely because it is well to emphasize in the most emphatic 
fashion the fact that in many respects there is a complete lack of analogy between the 
civilization of to-day and the only other civilization in any way comparable to it, that of the 
ancient Grteco-Roman lands. There are, of course, many points in which the analogy is 
close, and in some of these points the resemblances are as ominous as they are striking. But 
most striking of all is the fact that in point of physical extent, of wide diversity of interest, 
and of extreme velocity of movement, the present civilization can be compared to nothing 
that has ever gone before. It is now literallj'- a world movement, and the movement is 
growing ever more rapid and is ever reaching into new fields. Any considerable influence 
exerted at one point is certain to be felt with greater or less effect at almost every other 
point. Ever)' path of activity open to the human intellect is followed with an eagerness and 
success never hitherto dreamed of. We have established complete liberty of conscience, and, 
in consequence, a complete liberty for mental acti\ity. All free and daring souls have before 
them a well-nigh limitless opening for endeavor of any kind. 

PERIL OF ONE-SIDED DEVELOPMENT. 

"Hitherto every civilization tha-t has arisen has been able to develop only a compara- 
tively few activities; that is, its field of endeavor has been limited in kind as well as in locality. 
There have, of course, been great movements, but they were of practically only one form of 
activity; and although usually this set in motion other kinds of activities, such was not 
always the case. The great religious movements have been the pre-eminent examples of this 
type. But they are not the only ones. Such peoples as the Mongols and the Phoenicians, 
ut almost opposite poles of cultivation, have represented movements in which one element, 
military or commercial, so overshadowed all other elements that the movement died out 
chiefly because it was one-sided. The extraordinary outburst of acti\ity among the Mongols 
of the thirteenth century was almost purely a military movement, without e\cn anv great 
administrative side; and it was therefore well-nigh purely a movement of destruction. The 
individual prowess and hardihood of the Mongols, and the perfection of their military organ- 
ization, rendered their armies incomparably superior to those of any European, or any other 
Asiatic, power of that day. They conquered from the Yellow Sea to the Persian Gulf and 
the Adriatic; they seized the Imperial throne of China; they slew the Caliph in Bagdad; 
they founded djTiasties in India. The fanaticism of Christianity and the fanaticism of Mo- 
hammedanism were alike powerless against them. The valor of the bravest fighting men 
in Europe was impotent to check them. They trampled Russia into bloody mire beneath 
the hoofs of their horses; they drew red furrows of destruction across Poland and Hungary; 
they overthrew with ease any force from western Europe that dared encoimter them. Yet 
they had no root of permanence; their work was mere evil while it lasted, and it did not last 
long; and when thev vanished they left hardly a trace behind them. So the extraordinary 
Phoenician civilization was almost purely a mercantile, a business civilization, and though 
it left an impress on the life that came after, this impress was faint indeed compared to that 
left, for instance, by the Greeks with their many-sided development. Yet the Greek civiliza- 



THE WORLD MOVEMENT 373 

tion itself fell, because this many-sided development became too exclusivelj' one of intellect, 
at the expense of character, at the expense of the fundamental qualities which fit men to 
govern both themselves and others. When the Greek lost the sterner virtues, when his 
soldiers lost the fighting edge, and his statesmen grew corrupt, while the people became a 
faction-torn and pleasure-loving rabble, then the doom of Greece was at hand, and not all 
their cultivation, their intellectual brilliancy, their artistic development, their adroitness 
in speculative science, could save the Hellenic peoples as thej' bowed before the sword of the 
iron Roman. 

OPTIMISTIC OF FUTURE. 

"What is the lesson to us to-day? Are we to go the way of the older civilizations? 
The immense increase in the area of civilized activity to-day, so that it is nearly coterminous 
with the world's surface; the immense increase in the multitudinous variety of its activities; 
the immense increase in the velocity of the world movement — are all these to mean merely 
that the crash will be all the more complete and terrible when it comes? We cannot be 
certain that the answer will be in the negative; but of this we can be certain, that we shall 
not go down in ruin unless we deserve and earn om- end. There is no necessity for us to fall ; 
we can hew out our destiny for ourselves, if only we have the wit and the courage and the 
honesty. 

" Personally, I do not belie\-e that our civilization will fall. I think that on the whole 
we have grown better and not worse. I think that on the whole the future holds more for 
us than even the great past has held. But, assuredly, the dreams of golden glory in the future 
will not come true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by our o\^^l mighty deeds we make 
them come true. We cannot afford to de\-elop any one set of qualities, any one set of activi- 
ties at the cost of seeing others, equally necessary, atrophied. Neither the military efficiency 
of the Mongol, the extraordinary business ability of the Phoenician nor the subtle and 
polished intellect of the Greek availed to avert destruction. 

NEED OF HOMELY VIRTUES. 

"We, the men of to-day and of the future, need many qualities if we are to do our work 
well. We need, first of all and most important of all, the qualities which stand at the base of 
individual, of family life, the fimdamental and essential qualities — the homely, e^'eryday, all- 
important virtues. If the average m;.n will not work, if he has not in him the will and the 
power to be a good husband and father; if the average woman is not a good housewife, a 
good mother of many hedthy children, then the State will topple, will go down, no matter 
what rnay be its brilliance of artistic development or material achievement. But these 
homely qualities are not enough. There must, in addition be that power of organization, 
that power of working in common for a common end which the German people have shown in 
such signal fashion during the last h: If century. I\Ioreover, the things of the spirit are even 
more important than the things of the body. We can well do without the hard intolerance 
and arid intellectual barrenness of what vv'as worst in the theological systems of the past, but 
there his never been greater need of a high and fine religious spirit than at the present time. 
So, while we can laugh good-humoredly at some of the pretensions of modern philosophy in 
its various branches, it would be worse than folly on our part to ignore our need of intellectual 
leadership. Your own great Frederick once said that if he wished to punish a province he 
would leave it to be governed by philosophers; the sneer had in it an element of justice; and 
yet no one better than the great Frederick knew the value of philosophers, the value of men 
of science, men of letters, men of art. It would be a bad thing indeed to accept Tolstoy as 
a guide in social and moral matters; but it would also be a bad thing not to have Tolstoy, not 
to profit by the lofty side of his teachings. There are plenty of scientific men whose hard 
arrogance, whose cjTiical materialism, v.-hose dogmatic intolerance put them on a le\'el with 
the bigoted mediaeval ecclesi-isticism which they denoimce. Yet our debt to scientific men 
in incalculable, and our civilization of to-day would have reft from it all that which most 
highly distinguishes it if the work of the great masters of science during the past four cen- 
tunes were now undone or forgotten. Never has philanthropy, humanitarianism, seen such 
development as now; and thovtgh we must all beware of the folly, and the viciousness no 
worse thin folly, which marks the believer in the perfectibility of man when his heart runs 
away with his head, or when vanity usurps the place of conscience, yet we must remember 
also that it is only by working along the lines laid down by the philanthropists, by the lovers of 
mankind, that we can be sure of lifting our ci\'ilization to a higher and more permanent plane 
of well being than was ever attained by any preceding civilization. Unjust war is to be 
abhorred ; but woe to the nation that does not make ready to hold its own in time of need 



374 LECTURE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY 

against all who would harm it ; and woe thrice over to the nation in which the average man 
loses the fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need should arise. 

THE IDEAL CIVILIZATION. 

"It is no impossible dream to build up a civilization in which morality, ethical develop, 
ment and a true feeling of brotherhood shall all alike be divorced from false sentimentality, 
and from the rancorous and evil passions which, curiously enough, so often accompany pro- 
fessions of sentimental attachment to the rights of man ; in which a high material develop- 
ment in the things of the body shall be achieved without subordination of the things of the 
soul; in which there shall be a genuine desire for peace and justice without lossof those virile 
qualities without which no love of peace or justice shall avail any race ; in which the fullest 
development of scientific research, the great distinguishing feature of our present civilization, 
shall yet not imply a belief that intellect can ever take the place of character, for, from the 
standpoint of the nation as of the individual, it is character that is the one vital possession. 

"Finally, this world movement of civilization, this movement which is now felt throbbing 
in every comer of the globe, should bind the nations of the world together while yet leaving 
vinimpaired that love of country in the individual citizen which in the present stage of the 
world's progress is essential to the world's well-being. You, my hearers, and I who speak to 
you, belong to different nations. Under modem conditions the books we read, the news sent 
i3y telegraph to our newspapers, the strangers we meet, half of the things we hear and do each 
day, all tend to bring us into touch with other peoples. Each people can do justice to itself 
only if it does justice to others; but each people can do its part m the world movement for all 
only if it first does its duty within its own household. The good citizen must be a good citizen 
of his own country first before he can with advantage be a citizen of the world at large. I wish 
you well. I believe in you and your future. I admire and wonder at the extraordinary 
greatness and variety of your achievements in so many and such widely different fields, and 
my admiration and regard are all the greater, and not the less, because I am so profound a 
believer in the institutions and the people of my own land." 



BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY. 

ROMANES LECTURE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY, JUNE 7, 1910. 

"More than ever before in the world's history we of to-day seek to penetrate the causes 
of the mysteries that surroimd not only mankind, but all life, both in the present and the past ; 
and, studying, we see strange analogies in the phenomena of life and death, of birth, growth 
and change between those physical groups of animal life which we designate as species, forms, 
races and the highly complex and composite entities which rise before our mmds when we 
speak of nations and civilizations. 

"He who would fully treat of man must know at least something of biology, of the science 
that treats of living, breathing things, and especially of that science of evolution which is 
inseparably connected with the great name of Darwin. Of course, there is no exact paralleHsm 
between the birth, growth and death of species in the animal world and the birth, growth and 
death of societies in the world of man. Yet there is a certain parallelism. There are strange 
analogies; it may be that there are homologies. 

"When dealing with the changes, cataclysmic or otherwise, which divide one period of 
pateontological history from another, we can sometimes assign causes, and again we cannot 
even guess at them. In the case of single species or of faunas of very restricted localities the 
explanation is often self-evident. A comparatively slight change in the amount of moisture 
in the cHmate, with the attendant change in vegetation, might readily mean the destruction of 
a group of huge herbivores with a bodily size such that they need a vast quantity of food and 
with teeth so weak or so peculiar that but one or two kinds of plants could furnish this food. 
Again, we now know that the most deadly foes of the higher forms of life are various lower 
forms of life, such as insects or microscopic creatures conveyed into the blood by in.sects. 

"When the faunal groups die out, over large areas, the question is different. One of the 
most striking instances of inexplicable changes is that afforded by the history of South 
America toward the close of the tertiary period. 

"For ages South America hnd been an island by itself, cut off from North America, near 
what is now the isthmus of Panama. During this time a very peculiar fatma grew up m 
South America, some of the types resembling nothing now existing, while others are recogniz- 



BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY 375 

able as ancestral forms of the ant-eaters, sloths and armadillos of to-day. It was a peculiar 
and diversified mammalian fauna of, on the whole, rathei small species. 

"Toward the end of the tertiary there was an upheaval of land between this old South 
American island and North Amercia, near what is now the Isthmus of Panama, thereby 
making a bridge across which the teeming animal life of the northern continent had access to 
this queer southern continent. There followed an inrush of huge, or swift, or formidable 
creatures which had attained their development in the fierce competition of the arctogeal 
realm. Elephants, camels, horses, tapirs, swine, saber-toothed tigers, big cats, wolves, bears, 
deer, crowded into South America, warring each against the other incomers and against the 
old long-existing forms. 

"A riot of life followed. Not only was the character of the South American fauna 
totally changed by the invasion of these creatures from the North, which soon swarmed over 
the continent, but it was also changed through the development wrought in the old inhabit- 
ants by the severe competition to which they were exposed. Many of the smaller or less 
capable types died otit. Others developed enormous bulk or complete armor protection and 
thereby saved themselves from the new beasts. 

"In consequence. South America soon became populated with various new species of 
mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, camels, horses, deer, cats, wolves, hoofed creatures of 
strange shapes, and some of them of giant size, all of these being descended from the irnmi- 
grant types; and side by side with them there grew up large autochthonous ungulates, giant 
ground sloths well-nigh as large as elephants, and armored creatures as bulky as an ox but 
structurally of the armadillo or ant-eater type; and some of these latter not only held their 
own, but actually in their turn wandered north over the isthmus and invaded North America. 

"A faima as varied as that of Africa to-day, as abtmdant in species and individuals, even 
more noteworthy, becaitse of its huge size or odd type and because of the terrific prowess of the 
more foi-midable flesh-eater, was thus developed in South America, and flourished for apeiiod 
which human history would call very long indeed, but which geologically was short. 

"Then, for no reason that we can assign, detruction fell on this faima. All the great and 
terrible creatures died out, the same fate befalling the changed representatives of the old 
autochthonous fatma and the descendants of the migrants that had come down from the 
north. Groimd sloth and glyptodon, saber-tooth, horse and mastodon and all the associated 
animals of large size vanished, and South America, though still retaining its connection with 
North America, once again became a land mth a mammalian Hfe small and weak compared 
with that of North America and the Old World. 

"Now, as to all of these phenomena in the evolution of species, there are, if not homologies 
at least certain analogies, in the history of human societies, m the history of the rise to promi- 
nence, of the development and change, of the temporary dominance and death or transforma- 
tion of the groups of varying kind which form races or nations. Here as in biology, it is neces- 
sary to keep in mind that we use each of the words 'birth' and 'death,' 'youth' and 'age' often 
very loosely, and sometimes as denoting either one or two totally different conceptions. Of 
course, in one sense there is no such thing as an 'old' or a 'young' nation, any more than there 
is an 'old' or 'young' family. All that can properly be meant by the terms 'new' and 'young' 
is that in a gi\'en line of descent there has suddenly come a period of rapid change. 

"As in biology, so in human history, a new form may result from the specialization of a 
long-existing and hitherto very slowly changing generalized or non-specialized form; as, for 
instance, v,hen a barbaric race from a variety of causes suddenly develops a more complex 
cultivation and civilization. This is what occurred, for instance, in western Europe during 
the centuries of the Teutonic and later the Scandinavian ethnic overflows from the north. 

"All the modem countries of western Europe are descended from the states created by 
these northern invaders. When first created, they could be called 'new' or 'young' states in 
the sense tliit part or all of the people composing them were descended from races that hitherto 
had not Ijcen civilized at all, and that therefore, for the first time, entered on the career of 
civilized communities. . . 

"Again, the new form may represent merely a splitting oflf from a long-established, highly 
developed and specialized nation. 

WHEN NATIONS 'DIE.' 

"So, when we speak of the 'death* of a tribe, a nation, or a civilization, the term may he 
used for either one or two totally different processes, the analogy with what occurs in bio- 
logical history being complete. Certain tribes of savages, the Tasmanians, for instance, and 
various little clans of American Indians have within the last century or two completely died 
out ; all of the individuals have perished , leaving no descendants, and the blood has disappeared. 



376 LECTURES AT OXFORD VNIVERSITV 

Certain other tribes of Indians have as tribes disappeared or are now disappearing, but ibeir 
blood remains, being absorbed into the veins of the white intruders, or of the black men intro- 
duced by these white intruders; so that in reality they are merely being transfoiTned into 
something absolutely different from what they were. 

"A like wide diversity, in fact, may be covered in the statement that a civilization has 
'died out.' The nationality and culture of the wonderful city-builders of the lower Mesopo- 
tamian plain have disappeared, and though doubtless certain influences dating therefrom are 
still at work, they are in such changed and hidden form as to be unrecognizable. But the 
disappearance of the Roman empire was of no sttch character. There was complete change, 
far-reaching transformation, and at one period a violent dislocation; but it would not be 
correct to speak of the blood or the culture of old Rome as extinct. 

GREAT NATIONS RARELY OF ONE RACE. 

"Most of the great societies which have developed a high civilization and have played 
a dominant part in the world have been — and are — artificial, not merely in social structure, 
but in the sense of including totally different race types. A great nation rarely belongs to 
any one race, though its citizens generally have one essentially national speech. Yet the 
curious fact remains that these great artificial societies acquire such unity that in each one all 
the parts feel a subtle sympathy, and move or cease to mo\'e, go forward or go back all together, 
in response to some stir or throbbing, very powerful and yet not to be discerned by our senses. 
National unity is far more apt than race unity to be a fact to reckon with ; until indeed we 
come to race differences as fundamental as those which divide from one another the half-dozen 
great ethnic divisions of mankind, v.^hen they become so important that differences of nation- 
ality, speech and creed sink into littleness. 

['An ethnological map of Europe in which the peoples were divided according to their 
physical and racial characteristics, such as stature, coloration and shape of head, would bear 
no resemblance whatever to a map giving the political divisions, the nationalities, of Europe; 
while, on the_ contrary, a linguistic map would show a general correspondence between speech 
and nationality. The northern Frenchman is in blood and physical type more nearly allied 
to his Gei-man-speaking neighbor than to the Frenchman of the Mediterranean seaboard ; and 
the latter, in his turn, is nearer to the Catalan than to the man who dwells beside the channel 
or along the tributaries of the Rhine. 

" Butin essential characteristics, in the qualities that tell in the make-up of a nationality, 
all these kinds of Frenchmen feel keenly that they are one and are different from all outsiders, 
their differences dwindling into insignificance compared with the extraordinary, artificially 
produced resemblances which bring them together and wall them off from the outside world. 

MYSTERIES IN DEVELOPMENT. 

"In dealing, not with groups of human beings in simple and primitive relations, but ■v\'ith 
highly complex, highly specialized, civilized or semi-civilized societies, there is need of great 
caution indrawing analogies with what has occurred in the development of the animal world. 
Yet even in these cases it is curious to see how some of the phenomena in the growth and 
disappearance of these complex, artificial groups of human beings resemble what has happened 
in myriads of instances in the historj^ of life on this planet. 

" Why do great artificial empires, whose citizens are knit by a bond of speech and culture 
much more than by a bond of blood, show periods of extraordinary growth, and again of 
sudden or lingering decay? In some cases we can answer readily enough; in other cases v.'e 
cannot as yet even guess what the proper answer should be. If in any such case the centrifu- 
gal forces overcome the centripetal, the nation will of course fly to" pieces. The reason for 
its failure to become a dominant force is patent to every one. The minute that the spirit 
which finds its healthy development in local self-government, and is the antidote to the 
dangers of an extreme centralization, develops into mere partictilarism, into inability to 
combine effecti\-ely for achievement of a common end, then it is hopeless to expect great 
results. 

"Poland and certain republics of the western hemisphere are the standard examples 
of failure of this kind, and the United States would have ranked with them and its name 
would have become a b\nvord of derision if the forces of tmion had not triumphed in the Civil 
War. So the growth of soft luxury after it has reached a certain point becomes a national 
danger patent to all. 

"Again, it needs but little of the vision of a seer to foretell what must happen in any 
community if the average woman ceases to become the mother of a family of healthy children, 
if the average man loses the will and the power to work up to old age and to fight whenever 



BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY 377 

the need arises. If the homely, commonplace virtues die out, if strength of character van- 
ishes in graceless self-indulgence, if the virile qualities atrophy, then the nu'don has lost what 
no material prosperity can offset. 

"But there are plenty of other phenomena wholly or partially inexplicable. It is easy 
to see why Rome trended downward when great slave-tilled fanns spread over what had 
once been a countryside of peasant proprietors, when greed and luxury and sensuality ate 
like acids into the fiber of the upper classes, while the mass of these ciiizens grew to depend, 
not upon their own exertions, but upon the state, for their pleasures and their very livelihood. 
But this does not explain why the forward mo\-ement stopped at different times, so far as 
different matters were concerned; at one time as regards literature, at another time as 
regards architecture, at another time as regards city building. 

"There is nothing mysterious about Rome's dissolution at the time of the barbarian 
invasions; apart from the impoverishment and depopulation of the empire, its fall would be 
quite sufficiently explained by the mere fact that the average citizen had lost the fighting 
edge — an essential, even imder a desporism, and therefore far more essenrial in free, self- 
governing commrmities such as those of the English-speaking peoples of to-day. The mystery 
is rather that out of the chaos and corruption of Roman society during the last days of the 
oHgarchic republic there should ha^-e sprung an empire able to hold things with reasonable 
steadiness for three or four centuries. 

"But why, for instance, should the higher kinds of literary productiveness have ceased 
about the beginning of the second century, whereas the following centuries witnessed a great 
outbreak of energy in the shape of city-building in the provinces, not only in western Europe, 
but in Africa? We cannot even guess why the springs of one kind of energy dried up while 
there was yet no cessation of another kind. 

"Take another and smaller instance, that of Holland. For a period covering a little 
more than the seventeenth century, Holland, like some of the Italian city states at an earlier 
period, stood on the dangerous heights of greatness beside nations so vastly her superior in 
territory and population as to make it inevitable that sooner or later she must fallfrom 
the glorious and perilous eminence to which she had been raised by her own indomitable 
soul. Her fall came; it could not have been indefinitely postponed; but it came far quicker 
than it needed to come, because of shortcomings on her part to which both Great Britain and 
the United States would be wi-se to pay heed. 

A LESSON FROM HOLLAND. 

"Her government was singularly ineffective, the decentralization being such as often 
to permit the separatist, the particularist, spirit of the provinces to rob the central authority 
of all efficiency. This was bad enough. But the fatal w^ejikness was th-it so common in rich, 
peace-loving societies, where men hate to think of war as possible, and try to justify their 
own reluctance to face it either by high-sounding moral platitudes or el:.-e by a philosophy of 
short-sighted materiaUsm. The Dutch were very wealthy. They grew to bGiie\e that they 
could hire others to do their fighting for them on land; and on sei, where they did their 
own fighting, and fought very well, they refused in time of peace to mjke ready fleets so 
efficient as either to insure the Dutch agr inst the peace being broken or else to gi^•e them 
the victory w^hen war came. To be opulent and unarmed is to secure e: se in the present 
at the almost certain cost of disaster in the future. 

"It is therefore easy to see why Holland lost when she did her position among the 
powers; but it is far more diiiicult to explain why at the same time thc:e sliould have come 
at least a partial loss of position in the world of art and letters. 

"In the little repubHc of Holland, as in the great empire of Ronie, it vras not de.ith 
which came, but transformation. Both Holland and Italy ter.ch us th .t races that f 11 mi'.y 
rise again. In Holland, as in the Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, there was, 
in a sense, no decadence at all. There was nothing analogous to what has bef:dlen so rn-ny 
countries; no lowering of the general standard of well-being, no generrl loss of vitality, no 
depopulation. What happened was, first, a flowering time, in which the country's m.en of 
action and men of thought gave it a commanding position among the nations of the day; 
then this period of command passed, and the state revolved in an eddy, asMe from the sweep 
of the mighty current of world Hfe; and yet the people themselves in their internal relations 
remrdned substantially unchanged, and in many fields of endeavor have now recovered 
themselves and play again a leading part. 

" In Italy, where history is recorded for a far longer time, the course of pff.n'rs was differ- 
ent. When the Roman Empire, that was really Roman, went down in ruin, there followed 
an interval of centuries when the gloom was almost unrelieved. E^■ery form of luxury 
and frivolity, of contemptuous repugnance for serious work, of enervating self-indulgence, 

25 



378 LECTURE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY 

every form of vice and weakness which we regard as most ominous in the civilization ot 
to-day, had been at work throughout Italy for generations. The nation had lost all patriot- 
ism. It had ceased to bring forth fighters or workers, had ceased to bring forth men of 
mark of any kind, and the remnant of the Italian people cowered in helpless misery among 
the horse-hoofs of the barbarians as the wild northern bands rode in to take the land for a 
prey and the cities for a spoil. 

"It vvas one of the great cataclysms of history, but in the end it was seen that what came 
had been in part change and growth. It was not all mere destruction No only did Rome 
leave a vast heritage of language, culture, law, ideas to all the modern world, but the people 
of Italy kept the old blood as the chief strain in their veins. In a few centuries came a 
wonderful new birth of Italy. Then for 400 or 500 years there was a growth of many little 
city states which in their energy both in peace and war, in their fierce, fervent life, in the 
high quality of their men of arts and letters and in their utter inabihty to combine so as to 
preserve order among themselves or to repel outside invasion can not unfairly be compared 
with classic Greece. Again Italy fell, and the land was ruled by Spaniard or Frenchman or 
Austrian; and again, in the nineteenth century, there came for the third time a wonderful 
new birth. 

Italy's varied history. 

"Contrast this persistence of the old type in its old home and in certain lands which it 
had conquered with its utter disappearance in certain other lands where it was intrusive, 
but where it at one time seemed as firmly established as in Italy — certainly as in Spain or 
Gaul. No more curious example of the growth and disappearance of a national type can be 
foimd than in the case of the Grasco- Roman dominion in western Asia and northern Africa. 
AH told, it extended over nearly a thousand years, from the days of Alexander till after the 
time of Heraclius. Throughout these lands there yet remains the ruins of innumerable cities 
which tell how firmly rooted that dominion must once have been. 

"The overshadowing and far-reaching importance of what occurred is sufficiently shown 
by the famiHar fact that the New Testament was written in Greek, while to the early Chris- 
tians North Africa seemed as much a Latin land as Sicily or the valley of the Po. The in- 
trusive peoples and their culture flourished in the lands for a period twice as long as that 
which has elapsed since modern history, with the voyage of Columbus, may fairly be said to 
have begun; and then they withered like dry grass before the flame of the Arab invasion and 
their place knew them no more. They overshadowed the grovmd; they vanished, and the 
old types reappeared in their old homes, with beside them a new type, the Arab. 

"Now, as to all these changes, we can at least be sure of the main facts. We know 
that the Hollander remains in Holland, though the greatness of Holland has passed ; we 
know that the Latin blood remains in Italy, whether to a greater or less extent; and that the 
Latin culture has died out in the African realm it once won, while it has lasted in Spain and 
France, and thence has extended itself to continents beyond the ocean. We may not know 
the causes of the facts save partially; but the facts themselves we do know. 

"But there are other cases in which we are at present ignorant even of the facts; we do 
not know what the changes really were, still less the hidden causes and meaning of those 
changes. Much remains to be found out before we can speak wnth any certainty as to 
whether some changes mean the actual dying out or the mere transformation of types. It 
is, for instance, astonishing how little permanent change in the physical make-up to the 
people seems to have been worked in Europe by the migrations of the races in histonc times. 
A tall, fair-haired, long-skulled race penetrates to some southern covintry and establishes a 
commonwealth. The generations pass. There is no violent revolution, no break in con- 
tinuity of history, nothing in the written records to indicate an epoch-making change at any 
given moment; and yet, after a time, we find that the old type has reappeared, and that 

I)eople of the locality do not substantially differ in physical form from the people of other 
ocalities that did not suffer such an invasion. 

SUPREMACY OF THE WHITES. 

"The phenomena of national growth and decay, both those which can and those which 
cannot be explained, have been peculiarly in evidence during the four centuries that have 
gone by since the discovery of America and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. These 
have been the four centuries of by far the most inten.se and constantly accelerating rapidity of 
movement and development that the world has yet seen. The movement has covered all 
the fields of human activity. It has witnessed an altogether ime.xampled spread of civilized 
mankind over the world, as well as an altogether unexampled advance in man's dominion 



BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY 379 

over nature, and this together with a literary activity to be matched in but one previous 
epoch. 

"This peiiod of extension and development has been that of one race, the so-called white 
race, or, to speak more accurately, the group of peoples living in Europe who vmdovibtedly 
have a certain kinship of blood, who profess the Christian religion and trace back their 
culture to Greece and Rome. 

"The memories of men are short, and it is easy to forget how brief is this period of un- 
questioned supremacy of the so-called white race. It is but a thing of yesterday. During 
the thousand years which went before the opening of this era of European supremacy, the 
attitude of Asia and Africa, of Htm and Mongol, Turk and Tartar, Arab and Moor, had on 
the whole been that of successful aggression against Europe. More than a century passed 
after the voyage of Columbus before the mastery in war began to pass from the Asiatic 
to the European. Much of this world conquest is merely political, and such a conquest is 
always likely in the long run to vanish. But very much of it represents not a merely political 
but an ethnic conquest. During this period substantially all of the world achievements 
worth remembering are to be credited to the people of European descent. 

"The first exception of any consequence is the wonderful rise of Japan within the last 
generation — -a phenomenon tmexampled in history, for both in blood and in culture the 
Japanese line of ancestral descent is as remote as possible from ours, and yet Japan, while 
hitherto keeping most of what was strongest in her ancient character and traditions, has 
assimilated with curious completeness most of the characteristics that have given power 
and leadership to the West. 

"During this period of intense and feverish activity among the peoples of European 
stock, first one and then another has taken the lead. 

"Compirison is often made between the empire of Britain and the empire of Rome. 
When judged relatively to the effect on all modern civilization, the empire of Rome is of 
course the more important, simply because the nations of Europe and their offshoots in 
other continents trace back their culture either to the earlier Rome by Tiber or the later 
Rome by the Bosporus. The empire of Rome is the most stupendous fact in lay history; 
no empire later in time can be compared with it. 

"But this is merely another way of saying that the nearer the source the more important 
becomes any deflection of the stream's current. Absolutely, comparing the two empires one 
with the other in point of actual achievement, and disregarding thB immensely increased 
effect on other civilizations which inhered in the older empire because it antedated the 
younger by a couple of thousand years, there is little to choose between them as regards the 
wide and abandoning interest and importance of their careers. 

"The empire of Britain is vaster in space, in population, in wealth, in wide variety of 
possession, in a history of multiplied and manifold achievements of every kind than even 
the glorious empire of Rome. Yet, unlike Rome, Britain has won domination in every 
clime, has carried her flag by conquest and settlement to the uttermost ends of the earth 
at the very time that haughty and powerful rivals, in their abounding youth or strong matu- 
rity, were eager to set bounds to her greatness and to tear from her what she had won afar. Eng- 
land has peopled continents with her children, has swayed the destinies of teeming myriads 
of alien races, has ruled ancient monarchies and wrested from all comers the right to the 
world's waste spaces, while at home she has held her own before nations each of military 
power comparable to Rome's at her zenith. 

"Rome fell by attack from without only because the ills within her own borders had 
grown incurable. What is true of your country, my hearers, is true of my own; while we 
should be vigilant against foes from without, yet we need never really fear them so long as 
we safeguard ourselves against the enemies within our own households, and these enemies 
are our own pas.sions and follies. Free peoples can escape being mastered by others only by 
being able to master themselves. 

" We Americans and you people of the British isles alike need ever to keep in mind thn t 
among the many qualities indispensable to the success of a great democracy, and second 
only to a high and stern sense of duty, of moral obligation, are self-knowledge and self- 
mastery. 

"You, my hosts, and I, may not agree in all our views; some of you would think me 
a very radical democrat — as, for the matter of that, I am; and my theory of imperialism 
would probably suit the anti-imperialists as little as it would suit a certain type of forcible- 
feeble imperialist. But there are some points on which we must all ngree, if we think 
soundly. The precise form of government, democratic or otherwise, is the instrument, the 
tool, with which we work. It is important to have a good tool. But, even if it is the best 
possible, it is only a tool. No implement can ever take the place of the guiding intelligence 



38o LECTURE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY 

that 'sv-ields it. A very bad tool will ruin the work of the best craftsman; but a good tool in 
bad hands is no better. In the last analysis the all-important factor in national greatness is 
national character. 

"There are questions which we of the civilized nations are even tempted to ask of the 
future. Is our time of growth drawing to an end? Are we as nations soon to come under 
the rule of that great law of death which is itself but part of the great law of life? None 
can tell. Forces that we can see and other forces that are hidden or that can but dimly be 
apprehended are at work all around us, both for good and for evil. 

"The growth in luxury, in love of ease, in taste for vapid and frivolous excitement is 
both evident and unhealthy. The most ominous sign is the diminution in the birth rate, in 
the rate of natural increase, now to a larger or lesser degree shared by most of the civilized 
nations of central and western Europe, of America and AustraHa, a diminution so great 
that if it continues for the next century at the rate which has obtained for the last twenty- 
five years all the more highly civiHzed peoples will be stationary or else have begun to 
go backward in population, while many of them will have already gone very far 
backward. 

_ "There is much that should gi\-e us concern for the future. But there is much also 
which should give us hope. I believe with all my heart that a great future remains for us; 
but whether it does or does not, our duty is not altered. However the battle may go, the 
soldier worthy of the name will with utmost vigor do his alloted task and bear himself as 
valiantly in defeat as in victory. 

NATIONS BORN AGAIN. 

"Come what will, we belong to peoples who ha%'e not yielded to the craven fear ofbeint^ 
great. In the ages that have gone by, the great nations, the nations that have expanded ani 
that have played a mighty part in the world, have in the end grown old and weiikened and 
vanished; but so have the nations whose only thought was to avoid danger, all effort, who 
would risk nothing and who therefore gained nothing. 

_ _ "A nation that seemingly dies may be bom again; and even though in the physical sense 
It die utterly, it may yet hand down a history of heroic achievement and for all tinie to come 
may profoundly influence the nations that arise in its place by the impress of what it has done. 
Best of all is it to do our part well, and at the same time to see our blood live young and \-itai 
in men and ^yomen fit to take up the task as we lay it down ; for so shall our seed inherit the 
earth. But if this, which is best, is denied us, then at least it is ours to remember that if we 
choose we can be torch-bearers, as our fathers were before us. The torch has been handed on 
from nation to nation, from ci\-ilization to civilization throughout all recorded time, from the 
dim years before history dawned, down to the blazing splendor of this teemin? century 
of ours. 

"While freely admitting all of our follies and weaknesses of to-day, it is yet mere per- 
versity to refuse to realize the incredible advance that has been made "in ethical standards. 
I do not believe that there is the slightest necessarv connection between any weakening of 
virile force and this advance in the moral standard, ^this growth of the sense of obligation to 
one's neighbor and of reluctance to do that neighbor wrong. 

"Every modem civilized nation has many and terrible problems to solve within its own 
borders, problems that arise not merely from juxtaposition of poverty and riches, but espe- 
aally from the self-consciouness of both poverty and riches. Each nation must deal \\-ith 
these matters in its o\to fashion, and yet the spirit in which the problem is approached must 
ever be fundamentally the same. It must be a spirit of broad humanity; of brotherly kind- 
ness; of acceptance of responsibility, one for each and each for all; and at the same "time a 
spint as remote as the poles from every form of weakness and sentimentality. 

"As in war to pardon the coward is to do cruel wrong to the braA'e man who?e life his 
cowardice jeopards, so in ci\il affairs it is revolting to e\ery principle of justice to gi\-e to the 
lazy, the vicious, or even the feeble and dull \\-itted, a reward which is really the robbery of 
^^^'^at braver, wiser, abler men have eamed. The only effective way to help any man is to 
help him to help himself; and the worst lesson to teach him is that he can be permanently 
helped at the expense of some one else. 

MUST CUT OUT ABUSES. 

"Privilege should not be tolerated because it is to the avdantage of a minority, nor j'et 
because it is to the advantage of a majority. No doctrinaire theories of vested rights or free- 
dom of contract can stand in the way of our cutting out abuses from the body politic. Just 
as little can \ve afford to follow the doctrinaire of an impossible — and incidentlv of a highly 



BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY 381 

undesirable — social revolution vi-hich, in destroj-ing individual 1 ights (including property right 
and the family, would destroy the two chief agents in the advance of mankind, and the two 
chief reasons why either the ad\-ance or the preservation of mankind is worth while. 

" It is an evil and a dreadful thing to be callous to sorrow and suffering, and blind to our 
duty to do all things possible for the betterment of social conditions. But it is an tmspeak- 
ably foolish thing to strive for this betterment by means so destructive that thev would leave 
no social condition to better. In dealing with all these social problems, with the intimate 
relations of the family, with wealth in private use and business use, with labor, with poverty, 
the one prime necessity is to remember that, though hardness of heart is a great evil, it is no 
greater an e\'il than softness of head. 

"But in addition to these problems, the most intimate and important of all which to a 
larger or less degree affect all the modern nations somewhat alike, we of the great nations that 
have expanded, that are now in complicated relations with one another and with alien races, 
have special problems and special duties of our own. You belong to a nation which possesses 
the greatest empire upon which the srm has shone. I belong to a nation which is trying on 
a scale hitherto unexampled, to work out the problems of government for, of, andby the 
people, while at the same time doing the international duty of a great power. 

"But there are certain problems which both of us 'have to solve, and as to which our 
standards should be the sam.e. The Englishman, the man of the British isles, in his various 
homes across the seas, and the American, both at home and abroad, are brought into contact 
with utterly alien peoples, some a'. ith a civilization more ancient than our own, others still in, 
or having but recently arisen from, the barbarism our people left behind ages ago. Th& 
problems that arise are of well-nigh inconceivable diliiculty. 

"They cannot be solved by the foolish sentimentality of stay-at-home people, with little 
patent recipes, and those cut-and-dried theo:ies of the political nurserv which have such 
limited applicability amid the crash of elemental forces. Neither can thev be soh-ed by the 
raw brutality of the men who, whether at home or on the rough frontier of'civiHzation, adopt 
might as the only standard of right in dealing with other men, and treat alien races only as 
subjects for exploitation. 

BURDEN OF THE WHITE MAX. 

"No hard and fast rule can be dra\\Ti as applying to all alien races, because they diflfer 
from one another far more widely than some of them differ from us. But there are one or 
two rtdes which must not be forgotten. In the long run, there can be no justification for one 
race managing or controlling another unless the management and control are exercised in 
the interest and for the benefit of that other race. This is what our peoples have, in the main 
done, and must continue in the future in even greater degree to do, in India, Egypt and the 
Philippines alike. 

"In the next place, as regards every_ race, everywhere, at home or abroad, we cannot 
afford to deviate frorn the great rule of righteousness which bids us treat each man on his 
worth as a man. This has nothing to do with social intenningling, with what is called social 
equality. It has to do merely vrith the question of doing to each man and each woman that 
elementary justice which vrill permit him or her to gain from Hfe the reward which should 
always accompany thrift, sobriety, self-control, respect for the lights of others, and hard and 
intelligent work to a given end. 

"The other type of duty is the international duty, the duty owed by one nation to 
another. I hold that the laws of morality which should govern individuals in their dealings 
one with the other are just as binding concerning nations in their dealings one with the other. 
The application of the moral law must be different in the two cases, because in one case it 
has and in the other it has not the sanction of a civil law with force behind it. The indi\'idual 
can depend for his rights upon the courts, which themselves derive their force from the police 
power of the state. The nation can depend upon nothing of the kind; and therefore, as 
things are now, it is the highest duty of the most advanced and freest peoples to keep them- 
selves in such a state of readiness as to forbid to any barbarism or despotism the hope of 
arresting the progress of the world by striking down the nations that lead in that progress. 

"It would be fooHsh indeed to pay heed to the imwise persons who desire disarmament 
to be begun by the very peoples who, of all others, should not be left heirless before any 
possible foe. But we must reprobate quite as strongly both the leaders and'the peoples who 
practice or encourage or condone aggression and iniquity of the strong at the expense of the 
weak. We should tolerate lawlessness and wickedness neither by the weak nor by the 
strong, and both weak and strong we should in return treat with scrupulous fairness 

"The foreign poHcy of a great and self-respecting country should be conducted on 



382 



LECTURE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY 



exactly the same plane of honor, of insistence upon one's own rights and of respect for the 
rights of others, as when a brave and honorable man is dealing with his fellows. 

"Permit me to support this statement out of my own experience. For nearly eight 
years I was the head of a great nation and charged especially with the conduct of its foreign 
poHcy; and during those years I took no action with reference to any other people on the 
face of the earth that I would not have felt justified in taking as an individual in dealing with 
other individuals. 

" I believe that we of the great civilized nations of to-day have a right to feel that long 
careers of achievement lie before our several countries. To each of us is vouchsafed the 
honorable privilege of doing his part, however small, in that work. Let us strive hardily 
for success even if by so doing we risk failure, spurning the poorer souls of small endeavor 
who know neither failure nor success. Let us hope that our own blood shall continue in the 
1 nd, that our children and children's children to endless generations shall arise to take our 
places and play a mighty and dominant part in the world. 

"But whether this be denied or granted by the years we shall not see, let at least the 
satisfaction be ours that we have carried onward the "lighted torch in our own day and gen- 
eration. If we do this, then, as our eyes close, and we go out into the darkness, and other 
hands grasp the torch, at least we can say that our part has been borne well and valiantly. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Return to America and Enthusiastic Welcome 

SAFELY on board the "Kaiserin Auguste Victoria," the largest 
and finest of the Hamburg-American Hners, the returning 
African Nimrod and European Hon had the first opportunity 
for rest granted him for months. The season of strenuous activity 
was, for the time, at an end, and during the voyage he spent most of 
his time walking alone on the lower deck or dictating to his stenog- 
rapher — the passengers courteously respecting his desire for privacy. 
His chief appearance in public was on Tuesday, the 14th, when he held 
a reception for his fellow-passengers, and made a tour of the ship, 
shaking hands right and left with the second-class and steerage pas- 
sengers, who greeted him with warm enthusiasm. 

On Wednesday his inspection of the vessel was continued, the 
captain taking him down to that subterranean region sacred to the 
stokers. Roosevelt seemed in his element among these grimy cyclops. 
He grasped the hands of the grimiest among them, and chatted with 
them as familiarly as though he was one of themselves. The climax 
came when he seized a shovel which one of them had laid down, and 
deftly ''sifted" several shovelfuls of coal over the glowing beds within, 
his skill and earnestness bringing a chorus of cheers from the brawny 
stokers. 

By noon of the 15th the ship had come into "wireless" touch with 
the American shores, and from that time on messages poured upon 
the returning traveler in a flood, the three operators on board being 
kept busy in taking them. It would have exhausted a small fortune 
to answer them all, and he plaintively begged for a respite, sending an 
earnest request to his correspondents to notify him only of matters of 
23 (383).. 



384 RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 

jiiportance — a request which probably had Httle effect, since every one 
very Hkely deemed his special message important. 

Meanwhile, on shore, the fellow-citizens and admirers of the re- 
turning traveler were preparing to give him one of the most rousing 
receptions any American citizen had ever received. Though absent 
from home in person, ex-President Roosevelt had remained very much 
at home in the hearts of the American people. His remarkable recep- 
tion abroad had enormously increased his popularity in his own land. 
The esteem and admiration shown for him by the monarchs and people 
of Europe lifted him to a high level in the estimation of his fellow citi- 
zens. He was to them "Teddy of Ours," a scion of our own land, 
coming back to us stamped with the world's approval as one of its 
best and greatest, and the desire to give him an adequate reception 
expanded in consequence. No doubt their hearts beat high to the tune 
of "When Teddy Comes Marching Home." 

Two processions were arranged for — one a water parade as he 
came up New York Bay, the other a land parade after he had set foot 
on shore. To take part in the latter, delegations were making their 
way from all parts of the country to New York, ranging from the 
Billiken Club, one hundred strong, of far-off Los Angeles, to scores 
of others from nearer places. Chief among them were the Rough 
Riders, gathered in from the Wild West to greet their colonel and 
welcome him home again. In fact, the applications for places in the 
parade had been so overwhelming that the comniittee in despair was 
forced to cut down the line, lest it should wind on from yesterday to 
to-morrow. As a result the paraders were restricted to the Rough 
Riders and other veterans of the Cuban war, positions along the line 
of the procession being assigned to the visiting organizations, where 
they might cheer the coming ex-President to their hearts' content. 
There were more than 30,000 persons thus to be placed. The recep- 
tion stand at Battery Park had seats for about 500 guests, including 
members of Congress and of the diplomatic corps at Washington, 
state governors and many other dignitaries. Nearby was another 
stand with 2,500 seats. 

There were good reasons why President Taft could not personally 
take part in this ceremony, but he did his share by publishing a most 



RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 385 

flattering letter of greeting, closing with these words of heartfelt ap- 
preciation : 

"The people of this country will give him a welcome from their 
hearts, first hecause of their affection for him and the fact that he has 
returned to them safe and sound from a perilous expedition; second, 
because since he left them they have seen the people and the great men 
and the monarchs of other countries tender their profound respect to 
the same qualities in the man that his own people had previously noted 
and loved ; and, third, because by his personal touch, the sincerity and 
strength of his deliverances, he has increased the prestige of Ameri- 
cans throughout the world." 

The President was right; these were the things that endeared 
Roosevelt to the people; these the things that brought out the citizens 
of the metropolis in great multitudes on the morning of the i8th, to 
greet their admired fellow-citizen. 

At 7 o'clock that morning the great steamer surged into New 
York harbor, while the national salute of twenty-one guns roared out 
from the battleship "South Carolina" and the bands on the other war- 
ships vigorously played the ''Star Spangled Banner." This welcome 
was intensified by the host of craft in the harbor, which, as the great 
ocean steamer came into quarantine, filled the air with an ear-splitting 
racket from multitudinous whistles. 

On the flying bridge of the liner, high above the decks, stood the 
coming travelers, Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and their two children, in- 
terested and amused in the pandemonium around him. The brief health 
formalities over, the cutter "Manhattan" came up, bringing the re- 
mainder of the Roosevelt family. Mrs. Roosevelt was the first on 
board, but as she embraced and kissed her children, Roosevelt made 
a flying leap to the deck of the cutter, and with schoolboy vivacity 
slapped his son Theodore on the back, kissed the man's fiancee. Miss 
Alexander, who stood beside him, then took up Quentin and Archie 
in his arms and gave them resounding smacks. It was a family re- 
union of the hearty old type. Greetings over — and they were extended 
to all the friends on lx)ard and to many of the crew — he sat down to 
a hasty breakfast in company with a few intimate friends. The next 



S86 RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 

item on the program was to board the cutter "Androscoggin," in which 
he was to take part in the water parade. While he did so the big guns 
again roared out, and as the last gun sounded, lines of burgees and 
signal flags broke out on the warships from masthead to deck-line. 

"This beats Africa and Europe!" he heartily exclaimed, as he 
looked about him at the animated scene. Other jocular remarks broke 
from him as he hailed familiar faces, and the sight of the well remem- 
bered surroundings seemed to make him a boy again. 

As the time for Colonel Roosevelt's arrival at the Battery drew 
near enormous crowds swarmed toward Battery Park, overflowing the 
sidewalks and almost tying up traffic in the lower part of the city. 
The whole city had taken on a holiday appearance. Flags floated 
everywhere, pictures of Roosevelt were hung in thousands of windows 
and along the line of march buildings were draped with bunting. 

As the gray-hulled "South Carolina" came abreast of the Robins 
Reef Light, a churned rift of white foam at her bow, the patrol fleet 
of revenue cutters swung into position to starboard and port of the 
line, and slowly the maritime pageant went on, with the "Androscog- 
gin" immediately behind the skirmish line of war vessels. As they 
moved forward, on the roof of the pilot house of the cutter stood 
Roosevelt, silk hat in hand, waving acknowledgments to the cheering 
throng on ships and wharves, and calling out redoubled cheers by 
the act. 

Behind the "Androscoggin" the merchant vessels took their po- 
sitions in double column, maintaining a distance of 300 feet. Divided 
into twelve divisions commanded by as many vice-commanders, the 
parading fleet, nearly two hundred strong, steamed up the bay and 
into the Hudson, keeping well in toward the New York shore. When 
opposite the stakeboat anchored off Fifty-ninth street, the procession 
turned in toward the Jersey shore and steamed down the river to the 
Battery, 

As the defile reached the lower end of Manhattan every craft 
afloat and every factory ashore put its enthusiasm into steam and 
let loose a pandemonium such as is heard but once a year, at mid- 
night of December 31st. 



RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 3S7 

Theodore Roosevelt set foot on American soil for the first time 
in nearly fifteen months at 10.55 o'clock that morning. More than 
10,000 people were massed in Battery Park, and a shout that rivaled 
the earlier blasts of whistles greeted the home-comer as he stepped 
upon Pier A and was escorted to the grandstand, where he was wel- 
comed to the city, state and nation by Mayor Gaynor in a short speech. 
This ceremony was in many ways, particularly the former President's 
answering speech, the most notable feature of the day. 

Replying to Mayor Gaynor, Colonel Roosevelt said : 

'T thank you. Mayor Gaynor. Through you I thank your com- 
mittee and through them I wish to thank the American people for their 
greeting. 

"I need hardly say that I am most deeply moved by the reception 
given me. No man could receive such a greeting without being made 
to feel both very proud and very humble. 

'T have been away a year and a quarter from America and I have 
seen strange and interesting things alike in the heart of the frowning 
wilderness and in the capitals of the mightiest and most highly polished 
of civilized nations. 

*T have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and now I am more glad than 
I can say to get home, to be back in my own country, back among peo- 
ple I love. And I am ready and eager to do my part so far as I am able 
in helping solve problems which must be solved if we of this, the great- 
est democratic republic upon which the sun has ever shone, are to see 
its destinies rise to a high level of our hopes and its opportunities. 

"This is the duty of every citizen, but it is peculiarly my duty; 
for any man who has ever been honored by being made President of 
the United States is thereby forever after the debtor of the American 
people and is bound throughout his life to remember this as his prime 
obligation, and in private life as (much as in public life so to carry 
himself that the American people may never have cause to feel regret 
that once they placed him at their head." 

This brief ceremony over, the land parade began. The march of 
the Rough Riders down Broadway on their way to greet their old 
commander at the Battery had been the signal for an enthusiastic wel^ 



288 RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 

come all along the line. The famous troopers wore yellow khaki, with 
buckskin leggins and broad brimmed gray slouched hats. Their horses 
looked like mustangs, accoutred with heavy military saddles and blank- 
ets as though ready for campaign. 

They moved in battalion formation, the ranks extending for two 
blocks along Broadway, with flags flying and the Rough Rider band 
playing patriotic airs. All along the line of march they were given 
an enthusiastic greeting. 

As the parade started up Broadway a squadron of mounted police 
led the line, followed by the Squadron A mounted band. Then came 
the Rough Riders, proud of the opportunity to escort their former 
colonel. They had came together from all parts of the country, though 
mostly from the West, and were in their way a remarkable band. 
About one hundred and fifty former members of the famous regiment 
rode in the procession, clad in new uniforms, but carrying their old 
battle flags. 

Colonel Roosevelt's carriage followed immediately behind the 
Rough Riders, Mayor Gaynor and Cornelius Vanderbilt with him. In 
the carriages immediately following were the representatives of the 
President and the various states. The committee of the New York 
Senate and Assembly occupied five carriages. The three hundred 
members of the reception committee followed, and after them marched 
the 'Seventh Regiment band of one hundred pieces. 

The parade turned up Broadway and went west at Fourth street 
to Washington Square. The Abernathy boys, two lads of ten and six, 
who had ridden their ponies all the way from Oklahoma to take part 
in the reception, fell in at the arch, and 2,000 members of the Spanish 
War Veterans joined the procession at Eighth street. The parade 
marched between the ranks of stalwarts up Fifth avenue to Fifty-ninth 
street and there disbanded. 

As the procession passed between the myriads of enthusiastic citi- 
zens of New York and the country who densely lined both sides of 
the five mile route, the returned traveler everywhere was hailed with 
a whirlwind of exhuberant greetings. During most of the time he 
stood erect in his carriage, hat in hand, bowing and waving responsive 



RETURN TO AMERICA AND ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME 389 

greetings to the welcoming cheers. By noon the popular welcome was 
practically ended and Colonel Roosevelt joined his relatives for lunch 
preparatory to returning to his home at Oyster Bay in the late after- 
noon. 

Thus ended the reception of the famous ex-President, soldier, 
hunter, hobnobber with kings and hail-fellow with emperors, yet one 
of ourselves, a simple citizen of the United States, of equal rank with 
us all. 

We might follow him in his ride to Oyster Bay, where a continu- 
ous ovation awaited him along the way ; but it will be best to bid him 
farewell at the end of the Fifth avenue triumphal march. All we can 
say in parting with him and in closing the final page of this book, is 
that in Theodore Roosevelt the world has recognized one of its greatest 
men, and the age in which he lives greets him as the outspoken advo- 
cate of its highest aspirations for peace, good-will and a "Fair deal 
for all men, high and low, rich and poor alike." 



BOOK FIVE 



THE BATTLE FOR HUMAN 

RIGHTS 



The Principle of the Superiority of Human Rights when they 

Conflict with Property Rights and its Importance to 

every Man and Woman 



(391) 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

Fighting for the Rights of Man 

The Contest Between Rising Humanity and the Encroachment 

of Special Privilege 

THE home-coming of Theodore Roosevelt was an event in Amer- 
ican history. His year abroad had been a notable one and he 
came back crowned with honors. He had made his mark in 
Africa as a great hunter and in Europe as a great statesman. He stood 
in the lime-light of national admiration, as the greatest citizen of the 
world, the leader in a new crusade, one against the dominion of preda- 
tory wealth. For such a man there was no rest. The people wanted 
him, demanded him. He had roused Europe by his eloquent orations ; 
what had he to say to his own fellow-citizens? What new views of 
human progress had developed in his mind during his long absence ? 
What fresh lesson had he to teach ? 

No man could resist such a demand. The people were bent on 
seeing his earnest face, hearing his eloquent voice, absorbing his inspir- 
ing words. Their desire was not to be ignored. After a few months 
of busy home-life he responded to their call and set out on one of the 
most remarkable journeys of his life; one of stirring, vivid, burning 
eloquence ; one marked by views of social and industrial reform more 
radical and progressive than any he had ever presented. The climax 
came at Osawatomie, Kansas, already famous as the home of old 
John Brown. It was to become famous again as the home of the 
''New Nationalism," the creed of progression now advocated by our 
sturdy apostle of reform, the distinctive Roosevelt Policies, as op- 
posed to the policies of the several political parties. 

In formulating that platform he declared that this country had 
reached a crisis in its career, that the power of predatory wealth had 
become so great and remorseless, so j^irt round with special privilege 

^ (393) 



394 FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 

and supported by corrupt politics, as to reduce the industrial world to 
a condition approaching abject slavery and rob the poor of all hope 
and opportunity. Against this fast-growing dominion of over-ween- 
ing wealth Roosevelt set himself as the indomitable foe, aside from all 
party affiliations, the people's non-partisan champion, the leader in a 
great twentieth century crusade of more moment to man than any of 
the famous crusades of the past. 

It is this remarkable example of Rooseveltian energy and sus- 
tained eloquence with which we have now to deal, this rapid "swinging 
round the circle" in which our ex-President faced enormous and enthu- 
siastic audiences in sixteen of the states, gave them his ripened views 
on as many subjects of national interest, and found them everywhere 
wildly in sympathy with him and ready to back him up in all his 
demands for social and industrial reform. Throughout this whirlwind 
of speeches he manufactured public opinion at an extraordinary rate, 
put into concrete words the abstract ideas that had been slowly devel- 
oping in men's minds, and laid down a new platform of reform on 
which he found the people everywhere ready and eager to stand. 

Leaving home on August 23d, in the first week of his journey, 
extending from New York to Denver, he spoke to many thousands of 
people, who poured in from miles round to see and hear him and 
greeted him with inspiring warmth. At Utica, New York, the first 
stopping place on his route, his audience was made up of farmers and 
their families, his address being made at a Grange picnic before 10,000 
persons. He spoke to them at length on the duties and needs of rural 
life. After declaring himself against ''the crooked man, rich or poor," 
he launched into his subject. He advocated soil conservation, scientific 
farming, co-operation of the farmer with the man of science, the 
organization of farmers and the promotion of movements to raise the 
standard of social life in the country. He declared that "the country 
church should be made a true social center," that it should take the 
lead in work and in recreation, that it should care more for conduct 
than for dogma and more for ethical, spiritual, practical betterment 
than for merely formal piety. The country school, he further asserted, 
should be "made a vital center for economic, social and educational co- 
operation." 



FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 395 

In addition, he took the opportunity to lay the corner-stone of his 
idea of pohtical reform in the following suggestive sentence: "The 
only kind of politics I care for is the kind of politics where decency is 
combined with efficiency, and I hold that the only way in which a 
politician can efficiently help his party is by helping that party efficiently 
to serve the people." 

The main purpose of the journey which Colonel Roosevelt had 
undertaken was to deliver two promised and carefully prepared ora- 
tions, one on Nationalism, at Osawatomie, Kansas, and one on Conser- 
vation, at St. Paul, Minnesota, but at every stopping place he dealt 
with subjects suited to the locality and occasion, and filled the intervals 
with car-end bits of oratory that seemed to give unbounded satisfaction 
to his hearers. 

Thus, following his farmers' speech at Utica, came one at Dun- 
kirk, New York, to a great crowd from tlie locomotive works at that 
place, in which he applied lessons native to railroading to the general 
subject of good citizenship. At Buffalo, where he took breakfast with 
two hundred and fifty business and professional men, he dealt earnestly 
with the subject of the purification of the lake waters, a topic which 
he took up again at other points on the I>ake Erie front. He extended 
the subject of non-pollution of water to that of non-pollution of citi- 
zenship in the following words: "We must keep the water supply 
unpolluted, and to do that you must see that it is not polluted at its 
source. In the same way we must keep the standard of public honesty 
and public decency high, and you cannot do that unless the individual 
citizen in the first place himself keeps it high." 

In Ohio towns the car strike at Columbus and the consequent 
rioting supplied him with matter for oratory, the subject of mob rule 
being dealt with at Cleveland and Toledo. While he did not refer 
directly to the strike of the car-men, the application was patent. In 
his remarks at Toledo he said, in reference to acts of lawlessness or 
oppression : 

"I will not stand for any man if he is wrong, rich or poor. If the 
rich man strives to use his wealth to destroy others, I will cinch him 
if I can. If the poor man is crooked or commits violence, I will stand 
behind the forces of order every time. These are the articles of my 



396 FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 

creed: A square deal for every man, justice for every man, rich or 
poor. I stand for decent citizenship. I am against the corporation 
when it does wrong, and I am against the mob when it resorts to 
violence." 

Thus he went on, talking witli farmers and artisans, with business 
and professional men, with veterans, mothers and children, making his 
words fit his audience or the special situation, and everywhere awaking 
a hearty response. Thus, at Denison, Iowa, he gratified his hearers by 
designating theirs as "the typical American state." Rarely has there 
been an orator more competent to adapt himself to the requirements 
of his audience or better fitted by study and experience to handle intelli- 
gently a great variety of practical topics. 

The wild enthusiasm with which he was everywhere greeted 
showed that he was in touch with the beliefs and aspirations of his 
audiences. Evidently Theodore Roosevelt is reaching far down to an 
underlying stratum of the human soul ; the moral stratum which forms 
part of every man's nature, though in many it needs awakening; the 
demand for right, justice and equality of opportunity which dwells 
somewhere within every man's make-up. It is this strand of human 
character of which he is the born spokesman. He deals in the maxims 
of practical morality, the social or national ethics which the people as 
a whole deal with in their own hearts, but to which he gives voice and 
shape, seeking to develop from these abstract principles practical 
results. And the striking spectacle is that the common people every- 
where appear to have accepted him as their friend and champion and 
entertain for him a regard which approaches personal devotion. If 
ever any men have won, or are in the way to win, the love of the people 
at large, Theodore Roosevelt ranks high in that class. 

In this sense Roosevelt may be regarded as the Moses of a new 
dispensation, a great practical moralist, voicing the needs anS demands 
of the human soul as it exists to-day. Such would seem to be the case 
if we consider the regard which the rank and file of the American 
people manifest for him, and the evidence from abroad that he has 
touched the world's heart-strings. The reported demand for him as 
a prime minister for China indicates that that great Oriental nation 
is ready to accept him as a new Confucius, capable of dealing with its 
modern problems as the old-time sage dealt with its ancient ones. 



FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 397 

Every age has had its lawgiver, men placing justice in advance 
of expediency, advocating abstract good as opposed to concrete evil, 
each "a voice crying in the wilderness," feeling the needs, sharing the 
aspirations of his time, and voicing them in no uncertain words. Such 
a man was Confucius, the great practical moralist of the past. Will 
the America of the future look upon Roosevelt as China now looks upon 
its great sage, as a teacher of lessons fitted at once for his own and 
for coming ages ? 

The doctrine which Theodore Roosevelt is at present most strenu- 
ously advocating is that the people of this country are to-day facing a 
great national crisis, one in which the hordes of corporate greed are 
threatening by every method of unfairness and corruption to reduce the 
great industrial community to a state of virtual slavery, to forge for it 
fetters of class legislation and of organized wealth too strong for it to 
break. It is this fast-growing tendency, this seeming purpose, against 
which Roosevelt has set himself as the bulwark on the side of the 
people, and their fervid recognition of him as their greatest and ablest 
champion is a hopeful sign of the times. He is certainly building up 
a great wall of public opinion which will go far to stay the onward 
march of corporate greed. 

With this brief suggestion as to the ultimate significance of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's mission, let us keep pace with him in his western 
trip. On the 26th, his third day out, his journey through Iowa and 
Kansas was a regular campaign trip, with crowds, bands and banners 
everywhere. At Denison, after his compliment to Iowa as the t3^pical 
American state, he gave the corporations one of his characteristic side- 
blessings, saying: 

"This, my friends, is the problem that is before the American 
people to-day. We must subordinate special interests to the public 
good. I want to stand for the corporations when they are right, so 
that they can have conditions under which they can earn dividends, 
but corporations are not entitled to votes and are not entitled to the 
ownership of any public man. 

"Here in Iowa, the conditions of your life have been such that I 
feel that this state affords a peculiarly favorable field for work. Put the 
nation and keep the nation on the plane it must be put and kept on if 



398 FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 

we are to continue to make this great republic the greatest example 
that the world has ever seen of successful popular government, of 
government by and for the people." 

The greatest reception and demonstration of the day was at 
Council Bluffs, where Colonel Roosevelt stopped for an hour in the 
middle of the afternoon, and where Judge Walter I. Smith (who is in 
the field as a possible successor to Speaker Cannon) took him in his 
automobile and made a little spin around the city preliminary to the 
inevitable speech-making. The Judge introduced his guest as "the 
most distinguished American," but in the remarks that followed not a 
word was said that had anything to do with politics. 

At Omaha the Colonel was joined by his son Archie, who had 
been spending part of the summer on a Dakota ranch, and also by ex- 
Secretary of the Interior James R. Garfield, who was going through 
to Cheyenne with him. 

At Ogden a tall man held up twins, which gave an opportunity to 
Colonel Roosevelt to express his views concerning his "favorite crop," 
that of children. 

Cheyenne was the next point of special interest on the trip. 
Roosevelt was due there on the 27th and the Wyoming capital was in 
a flutter of excitement. Flags and bunting were everywhere in evi- 
dence and arches spanned the main streets, blazoned with hearty words 
of welcome in huge letters. The city was thronged with people from 
the country around, among them many cowboys, including several old 
comrades of the Colonel's ranch days. These, with Indians in red and 
yellow blankets, attracted much attention from the eastern visitors. 

During the two days which the visitor spent in and in the vicinity 
of the city an elaborate programme of entertainment and festivities 
was carried out. An address from the Colonel was, of course, a part 
of it, but cowboy and Indian races were given, with parades and 
pageants illustrating life on the plains. 

On Sunday, the 28th, the former rancher recalled old associations 
by taking a thirty-mile broncho ride to the cattle ranch of Senator 
Warren. The distance was only sixteen miles, but the rider made a 
detour to get all the ride he wanted. Bets were made by the cowboys 
that the Colonel would not come back on his mount. "He'll be doing 
well if he lasts as far as the Senator's ranch," one of them said. 



FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 399 

They were right. When he came back at nine o'clock at night it 
was in an automobile. He gave a broad grin as the cowboys gathered 
around the machine and started to chide him. 

"Now, I would have come back on that broncho/' he said, ''but it 
was so late when we started back that Senator Warren thought I 
ought to ride in the car. He did not want me to ride in the dark on the 
broncho, you see." 

"Wow !" yelled the cowboys. 

During the sports on the preceding day the Colonel had been 
especially pleased by the grit shown by Luella Irwin, the thirteen-year- 
old daughter of Charlie Irwin, champion cowpuncher of Wyoming, 
who insisted on riding a pony race with her face painfully bruised, the 
result of a bad fall she got from her mount on Friday. 

"Then there was Buffalo Vernon," said Colonel Roosevelt. "I 
noticed that A^ernon in his performance of throwing the wild buffalo 
had his wrist bandaged. I asked Vernon about this and he told me the 
wrist was broken the day before he threw the buffalo. There he was 
going through a performance that was hard enough with two sound 
wrists and he threw the buffalo, too. 

"That is the spirit that these people show, and it is an answer to 
those who now and then say that tmder our civilization people are 
getting too soft. I liked to see the courage and admirable qualities 
displayed by these people yesterday; there was nothing soft about 
them." 

Denver, where three speeches were to be made in a single day, 
was the next main point on the route. Here the traveler was to make 
a brief address to the state legislature, and one to the veterans of the 
Spanish War, his main speech being before the Colorado Live Stock 
Association. A great crowd hailed him with cheers at the station, and 
a parade was formed, the Governor of Colorado and the Mayor of 
Denver being in the carriage with him. The parade was made up of 
his old comrades in arms, the veterans of the Spanish War, who were 
holding their annual reunion in Denver, and who had greeted the 
incoming train with a salute of twenty-one guns. 

The procession went through the principal streets to the reviewing 
stand. During the entire distance of the line of march of two miles 
and a half the sidewalks were packed with a solid mass of people who 



400 FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 

pressed at the ropes which had been put up to keep them from the 
streets and were kept out only by the efforts of the mounted pohce. 

From the time the parade started till it ended there was an unin- 
terrupted roar of welcoming shouts from the multitude. The cowboys 
gave their yell, whistles were tooted and bells were rung. The Colonel 
was kept on his feet bowing to the right and left in acknowledgment 
of salutations. The streets were a mass of color, and flags and bunting 
were hung on ropes suspended across the streets ; banners were hung 
with pictures of Colonel Roosevelt, with the words "Welcome, Teddy," 
and "De-lighted." 

Aside from the parade and the speeches, the features of the day 
took the form of luncheons and banquets. Immediately after reviewing 
the parade from the reviewing stand, the Colonel attended a cowboy 
chuck- wagon lunch given by the Denver Press Club, a feature of which 
was the serving to the former President "grub" from the wagon he had 
used \yhen he was roughing it in that state several years before. 

Then followed the speech at the Auditorium, where he addressed 
an audience of 15,000 persons; a talk at four o'clock to the Colorado 
legislature, then in extra session, and remarks to the war veterans at 
five o'clock. In the evening a banquet was given by the Live Stock 
Growers' Association, at which the guest of honor spoke on "Old Days 
on the Ranch," the former Forester Pinchot on "The Cow and the 
Tree," and the former Secretary Garfield on "Conservation and 
Progress." 

The talk at the Auditorium was marked by an incident so signifi- 
cant of the character of Theodore Roosevelt that we cannot pass it by 
unstated. Denver, it will be remembered, is the city of Judge Lindsey, 
the developer of the famous Juvenile Court and the daring exposer of 
fraud and graft in the Colorado capital. As a result Denver corpora- 
tions and politicians have no use for Ben Lindsey, and the authorities 
failed to honor him with an invitation to the platform. On the con- 
trary, Lindsey is a man after Roosevelt's own heart, and when he 
heard of this instance of petty spile he broke out in his characteristic 
manner, to the effect that the stage that was not broad enough to hold 
Ben Lindsey was not broad enough to hold him, and insisting that the 
judge should have a seat on the platform. The outcome of it was that 




Photo. Amer. Press Asso. 

"JUSTICE FOR THE RICH MAN AND POOR MAN." 
Part of the crowd of irainmen at Ashtabula, O., whom Colonel Roosevelt addressed from 
the car. He said in part, "There are two prime articles in my faith. I stand for justice for 
the rich man and poor man alike and for the punishment of wrong whereever or by whom- 
soever done." 




Photo. A liter. Press .Issu. 

"I AM GOING TO FIGHT FOR A CLEAN GOVERNMENT."' 
This photograph shows Colonel Roosevelt speaking to the crowd which thronged about 
his private car at Cleveland. He said, "I want to assure you that as long as I have the 
power to do so I am going to fight for a clean government, clean manhood, dean politics." 




topyrignt. 11)10, by Amer. Press Asso. 

CONGRATULATING THE GIRL WINNER OF A RACE AT CHEYENNE 
Colonel Roosevelt said, "The pioneer clays are over, save in a few places, and the more 
complex life of to-day calls for a greater variety of good qualities than v^rere needed on the 
frontier, but the need for the special and pioneer virtue? is ns great as ever." 




Copyriiiht, loio. by Aiiicr. J'rcss As'so. 
COLONEL ROOSEVELT AND DOUGLAS ROBINSON, HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW 
On seeing the famous visitor a great number of men and boys crowded up to shake 
hands. "I know yo' by yo'r pictnr". You're Teddy," said one man, ninety years old. 
Photo. Amer. Press Asso. 



FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAN 401 

ex-President Roosevelt and Judge Lindsey marched up the aisle side 
by side, to the edification of the great Denver audience. 

From Denver to Osawatomie the journey continued. Here was 
to be given the specially prepared oration, one that gave warrant for 
the entire trip. It was so important an occasion and the address so 
radical a declaration of principles that it is necessary to devote to them 
a separate chapter. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

The Doctrine of New Nationalism 

WHILE in Europe Colonel Roosevelt had received numerous 
invitations from American communities and organizations 
to visit them and act as orator on many special occasions. 
The flood of demand was too great for his powers of supply and he 
had too much work already awaiting him at home to accept these 
flattering invitations. Of them all he was willing to pledge himself 
only to one. He agreed to deliver an address at the dedication on 
August 31st of the John Brown Park at Osawatomie, John Brown's 
place of residence in Kansas. It was this contract that led him to 
undertake a fortnight's whirlwind swing through the West and to 
unlock the floodgates of his eloquence in the manner partly described 
in the preceding chapter. 

The opportunity was one not unwelcome to him. He had much 
to say to the American people. History had been developing during 
his year's absence in Africa and there was more than one topic on 
which he was anxious to speak. And the desire of the people to hear 
him was too great to be much longer resisted. During his trip to 
Osawatomie he was besieged. In every city his admirers turned out 
in cheering multitudes. At every station at which the train stopped 
for the briefest interval he was fairly forced to make car-end speeches 
to clamoring throngs — on one occasion being roused from his bed at 
night to speak to the people in his pajamas, round which he had 
hastily thrown a cloak. Even at side-stations where the train did not 
stop the platforms were crowded, cheers and the waving of handker- 
chiefs greeting him as he dashed by. This took place at times even at 
night, when the train was only a flash of light and a roar of wheels. 

But the main purpose of his journey was the speech at Osawa- 
tomie. Most of what he said elsewhere had been delivered on the spur 

(402) 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 403 

of the moment, but this was a carefiihy prepared oration, in which he 
proposed to lay before the people "My policies up to date," to quote a 
phrase from his speech. 

Denver was a great day in the Colonel's western tour. Osawa- 
tomie was in a certain respect greater. The crowds were not so large, 
but that obviously was only because there were not so many people 
within a reachable radius of the little Kansas town where John Brown 
fought for a free state sixty or more years ago. But if anything 
exceeded the enthusiasm of the Colorado friends and followers of the 
Colonel it was the almost fanaticism of the Kansas disciples. They 
had been flocking into Osawatomie for two days, coming from the 
most distant parts of the state. Many of them rode all night in a 
drenching rain, that poured over the state all night and most of the 
morning, to be on time. Nothing could deter them or dampen their 
ardor. As the special train passed through the little towns on the flat 
western prairies every station presented its yelling, whooping contin- 
gent of Roosevelt partisans. 

At Osage City before seven o'clock a special car was waiting on a 
side track, with Governor Stubbs, Senator Bristow, William Allen 
White and a carload of redhot insurgents, who had been in attendance 
on the Kansas Republican convention at Topeka. The car was 
crowded to the limit and was bubbling over with enthusiasm. 

It was still raining when the train reached Ottawa, but there was 
a great crowd at the station. They shouted and whooped it up when 
the Colonel stepped out on the platform to make a little talk. The 
preliminary time at Osawatomie was taken up in a talk with Governor 
Stubbs and some of the local committeemen, who were anxious to get 
their arrangements for the day settled. 

"This is the biggest day that Kansas ever knew," said Governor 
Stubbs after the oration had been delivered. "It was the greatest 
speech Colonel Roosevelt ever made in his life," he added. 

But Colonel Roosevelt had spoken not only for Kansas, but for 
the United States, and the general opinion throughout the country 
was in line vath that of Governor Stubbs. The "New Nationalism," 
a phrase v/hich he had used in his speech, was taken as a highly 
suggestive catch-word for the Roosevelt policies, and it is one to which 
the country caught on so decidedly that it has probably come to stay. 



404 THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 

The "New Nationalism" constituted the advance statement of 
what may develop into a new political party, that of the Progressives. 
It is a party with a platform, and the following are the planks of that 
platform, as dwelt upon at length in the Osawatomic speech : 

First. Elimination of special interests from politics. 

Second. Complete and effective publicity of corporation affairs. 

Third. Passage of laws prohibiting the use of corporate funds, 
directly or indirectly, for political purposes. 

Fourth. Government supervision of the capitalization not only 
of public service corporations, but of all corporations doing an inter- 
state business. 

Fifth. Personal responsibility of officers and directors of corpo- 
rations that break the law. 

Sixth. Increase in the power of the Federal Bureau of Corpora- 
tions and the Interstate Commerce Commission to control industry 
more effectively. 

Seventh. Revision of the tariff, one schedule at a time, on the 
basis of information furnished by an expert tariff commission. 

Eighth. Graduated income tax and graduated inheritance tax. 

Ninth. Readjustment of the country's financial system in such a 
way as to prevent repetition of periodical financial panics. 

Tenth. Maintenance of an efficient army and navy large enough 
to insure the respect of other nations, as a guarantee of peace. 

Eleventh. Use of national resources for the benefit of all the 
people. 

Twelfth. Extension of the work of the Departments of Agricul- 
ture of the national and state governments and of agricultural colleges 
and experiment stations so as to take in all phases of life on the farm. 

Thirteenth. Regulation of the terms and conditions of labor by 
means of comprehensive workmen's compensation acts, state and 
national laws to regulate child labor and the work of women, enforce- 
ment of better sanitation conditions for workers and extension of the 
use of safety appliances in industry and commerce, both in and between 
the states. 

Fourteenth. Clear division of authority between the national and 
the various state governments. 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 405 

Fifteenth. Direct primaries, associated with corrupt practices 
acts. 

Sixteenth. Publicity of campaign contributions not only after 
election, but before election as well. 

Seventeenth. Prompt removal of unfaithful and incompetent 
public servants. 

Eighteenth. Provisions against the performance of any service 
for interstate corporations or the reception of any compensation from 
such corporations by national officers. 

On these, the orator said, "the issue is joined, and we must fight 
or fall." The text of the New Nationalism oration, with the elimina- 
tion of some of its less important paragraphs, follows : 

THE NEW NATIONALISM. 

There have been two great crises in our country's history; first 
when it was formed, and then again when it was perpetuated. The 
formative period included not merely the Revolutionary War, but the 
creation and adoption of the Constitution and the first dozen years of 
work under it. Then came sixty years during which we spread across 
the continent — years of vital growth, but of growth without rather 
than growth within. Then come the time of stress and strain which 
culminated in the Civil War, the period of terrible struggle upon the 
issue of which depended the justification of all that we had done earlier, 
and which marked the second great period of growth and development 
within. The name of John Brown will be forever associated with this 
second period of the nation's history, and Kansas was the theatre upon 
which the first act of the second of our great national life dramas 
was played. 

LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE PAST. 

I do not speak of this struggle of the past merely from the historic 
standpoint. Our interest is primarily in the application to-day of the 
lessons taught by the contest of half a century ago. It is of little use 
for us to pay lip loyalty to the mighty men of the past unless we 
sincerely endeavor to apply to the problems of the present precisely 
the qualities which in other crises enabled the men of that day to meet 
those crises. It is half melancholy and half amusing to see the way 



4o6 THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 

in which well-meaning people gather to do honor to the men who, in 
company with John Brown, and under the lead of Abraham Lincoln, 
faced and solved the great problems of the nineteenth century, while 
at the same time these same good people nervously shrink from or 
frantically denounce those who are trying to meet the problems of 
the twentieth in the spirit which was accountable for the successful 
solution of the problems of Lincoln's time. 

Of that generation of men, to whom we owe so much, the man 
to whom we owe the most is, of course, Lincoln. Part of our debt 
to him is because he forecast our present struggle and saw the 
WAY OUT. He said : 

"I hold that while man exists it is his duty to improve not only his 
own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind." And again, 
''Labor is prior to and independent of capital; capital is only the fruit 
of labor, and could never have existed but for labor. Labor is t?ie 
superior of capital and deserves much the higher considera- 
tion. Capital has its rights which are as worthy of protection as any 
other rights. . . . Nor should this lead to a war upon the owners 
of property." 

In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main 
objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in larger measure 
equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations 
rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it peoples press 
forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the 
chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The 
essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been and must 
always be to take from some one man or class of men the right to 
enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been 
earned by service to his or their fellows. 

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY. 

At many stages in the advance of humanity this conflict between 
the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who 
have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. 
In our day it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 407 

HOLD THE RIGHT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT AS AGAINST THE SPECIAL 

INTERESTS^ who twist the methods of free government into machinery 
for defeating the popular will. At every stage and under all circum- 
stances the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy 
privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the 
highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth. 

Practical equality of opportunity for all citizens, when 
we achieve it, will have two great results. First, every man will have 
a fair chance to make of himself all that in him lies, to reach the highest 
point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own 
and unhampered by the special privilege of others, can carry him, and 
to get for himself and his family substantially what he has earned. 
Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get 
from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable. No man 
who carries the burden of special privileges of another can give to the 
commonwealth that service to which it is fairly entitled. 

I STAND FOR THE SQUARE DEAL. But when I say that I am for the 
square deal I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the 
present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules 
CHANGED so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity, 
and of rew^ard for equally good service. 

This means that our governments, national and state, must be 
freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly 
as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political 
integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business 
interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of govern- 
ment for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of 
politics. That is one of our tasks to-day. 

Now mind you, if there were any attempt by mob violence or in 
any other way to plunder and work harm to the special interest, 
whatever it may be that I most dislike, to the wealthy man, w4iom- 
soever he may be for whom I have the greatest contempt, I would fight 
for him and so would you if you are worth your salt. He should have 
justice. Every special interest is entitled to justice — full, fair and 
complete. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and 
we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of 



4o8 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 



suffrage to any corporation. Not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, 
a voice on the Bench or representation in public office. 

The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who 
insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of 
THE COMMONWEALTH, who insists that the creature of man's making 
shall be the servant, and not the master of the man who made it. The 
ci'Jzens of the United States must effectively control the mighty com- 
mercial forces which they have themselves called into being. 

There can be no effective control of corporations while their 
political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short 
nor an easy task, but it can be done. 



PUBLICITY OF TRUST AFFAIRS. 

We must have complete and eft'ective publicity of corporate 
affairs, so that the people may know beyond peradventure whether the 
corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them- 
to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be 
passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for 
political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be 
thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, 
and especially such expenditures by public service corporations, have 
supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political 
affairs. 

It has become entirely clear that we must have government super- 
vision of the capitalization not only of public service corporations, 
including particularly railways, but of all corporations doing an inter- 
state business. I do not wish to see the nation forced into ownership 
of the raihvays if it can possibly be avoided, and the only alternative 
is thoroughgoing and effective regulation, which shall be based on a 
full knowledge of all the facts, including a physical valuation of the 
property. This physical valuation is not needed, or at least is very 
rarely needed, for fixing rates; but it is needed as the basis of honest 
capitalization. 

We have come to recognize that franchises should never be 
granted except for limited time, and never without proper provision 
for compensation to the public. It is my personal belief that the same 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 409 

kind and degree of control and supervision which should be exercised 
over public service corporations should be extended also to combina- 
tions which control necessaries of life, such as meat, oil and coal, or 
which deal in them on an important scale. 

I believe that the officers and especially the directors of 

CORPORATIONS SHOULD BE HELD PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE when any 

corporation breaks the law. 

Combinations in industry are the result of an imperative economic 
law which cannot be repealed by political legislation. The effort at 
prohibiting all combination has substantially failed. The way out lies 
not in attempting to prevent such combinations, but in completely 
controlling them in the interest of the public welfare. For that 
purpose the Federal Bureau of Corporations is an agency of the first 
importance. Its power and therefore its efficiency, as well as that of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission, should be largely increased. 
We have a right to expect from the Bureau of Corporations and from 
the Interstate Commerce Commission a very high grade of public 
service. We should be as sure of the proper conduct of interstate 
railways and the proper management of interstate business as we are 
now sure of the conduct and management of the national banks. The 
Hepburn act and the amendment to that act in the shape in which it 
finally passed Congress at the last session, represent a long step in 
advance ; and we must go yet further. 

GRAPPLING WITH TRUSTS. 

The absence of efifective state, and especially national, restraint 
upon unfair money getting has tended to create a small class of enor- 
mously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object 
is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the 
conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is 
not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. We 
grudge no man a fortune which represents his owai power and sagacity, 
when exercised with entire regard for the welfare of his fello\vs. But 
the fortune must be honorably obtained and well used. It is not evert 
enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the 



4 1 o THE D CTRINE OF NE W NA TIONALISM 

community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the 
gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies 
a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social 
and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but J, 
think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in govern- 
mental control is now necessary. 

No MAN SHOULD RECEIVE A DOLLAR UNLESS THAT DOLLAR HAS 

BEEN FAIRLY EARNED. Every dollar received should represent a 
dollar's worth of service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen 
fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differ- 
entiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of 
relatively small means. Therefore I believe in a graduated income tax 
on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected 
and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, 
properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount 
with the size of the estate. 

The people of the United States suffer from periodical financial 
panics to a degree substantially unknown among the other nations 
which approach us in financial strength. There is no reason we should 
suffer what they escape. It is of profound importance that our financial 
system should be promptly investigated, and so thoroughly and effec- 
tively revised as to make it certain that hereafter our currency will no 
longer fail at critical times to meet our needs. 

Nothing is more true than that excess of every kind is followed 
by reaction, a fact which should be pondered by reformer and reac- 
tionary alike. \A'e are face to face with new conceptions of the 
relations of property to human vvclfare, chiefly because certain advo- 
cates of the rights of property against the rights of men have been 
pushing their claims too far. Tb.e man who wrongly holds that every 
human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the 
advocate of human welfare, v.'lio rightly maintains that every man 
holds his property subject to the general right of the community to 
regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it. 
But I think we mav go still further. The right to regulate the use of 
wealth in the public interest is universally admitted. Let us admit 
also the right to regulate the terms and conditions of labor, which is 



THE DOCTRINE OF NEW NATIONALISM 411 

the chief element of wealth, directly in the interest of the common 
g-ood. The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him 
the chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible 
contribution to the public welfare. No man can be a good citizen 

UNLESS HE has A WAGE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO COVER THE BARF 
COST OF LIVING, AND HOURS OF LABOR SHORT ENOUGH SO that after his 

day's work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in 
the management of the community, to help in carrying the general 
load. We keep countless men from being good citizens by the condi- 
tions of life with which we surround them. We need comprehensive 
workmen's compensation acts, both state and national laws to regulate 
child labor and the work of women, and especially we need in our 
common schools not merely education in book-learning, but also prac- 
tical training for daily life and work. We need to enforce better 
sanitary conditions for our workers, and to extend the use of safety 
appliances in industry and commerce both within and between the 
states. Also, friends, in the interest of the workingman himself we 
need to set our faces like flint against mob violence just as against 
corporate greed; against violence and injustice and lawlessness by 
wageworkers just as much as against lawless cunning and greed and 
selfish arrogance of employers. 

If I could ask but one thing of my fellov/ countrymen, my request 
would be that whenever they go in for a reform they always remember 
the two sides, and that they always exact justice from one side as 
much as from the other. 

I have small use for the public servant who can always see and 
denounce the corruption of the capitalist, but who cannot be persuaded, 
especially before election, to say a word about lawless mob violence, 
and I have equally small use for the man,, be he judge on the bench 
or editor of a great paper, or wealthy and influential private citizen, 
who can see clearly enough and denounce the lawlessness of mob 
violence, but whose eyes are blind when the question is one of corrup- 
tion in business on a gigantic scale. 

I do not ask for overcentralization, but I do ask that we work in 
a spirit of broad and far-reacliing nationalism when we work for what 
concerns our people as a whole. We are all Americans. Our common 



4 1 2 THE D OCTRINE OF NEW NA TIONALISM 

interests are as broad as the continent. I speak to you here in Kansas 
exactly as I would speak in New York or Georgia, for the most vital 
problems are those which affect us all alike. The national government 
belongs to the whole American people, and where the whole American 
people arc interested that interest can be guarded effectively only by 
the national government. The betterment which we seek must be 
accomplished, I believe, mainly through the national govefrnment. 
The American people are right in demanding that new nationalism 
without which we cannot hope to deal with new problems. The new 

NATIONALISM PUTS THE NATIONAL NEED BEFORE SECTIONAL OR 

PERSONAL ADVANTAGE. It is impatient of the utter confusion that 
results from local legislatures attempting to treat national issues as 
local issues. It is still more impatient of the impotence which springs 
from the overdivision of government powers, the impotence which 
makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by 
wealthy special interests, to bring national activities to a deadlock. 
This new nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of 
the public welfare. It demands of the judiciary that it shall be inter- 
ested primarily in human welfare rather than in property, just as it 
demands that the representative body shall represent all the people, 
rather than any one class or section of the people. 

MONEY IN POLITICS. 

If our political institutions were perfect they would absolutely 
prevent the political domination of money in any part of our affairs. 
We need to make our political representatives more quickly and sensi- 
tively responsive to the people whose servants they are. More direct 
action by the people in their own affairs under proper safeguards is 
vitally necessary. The direct primary is a step in this direction if it 
is associated with a corrupt practices act effective to prevent the 
advantage of the man willing recklessly and unscrupulously to spend 
money over his more honest competitor. It is particularly important 
that all moneys received or expended for campaign purposes should be 
publicly accounted for not only after election, but before election as 
well. Political action must be made simpler, easier and freer from 



THE D CTRINE OF NE W NA TIONALISM 4 1 3 

confusion for every citizen. I believe that the prompt removal of 
unfaithful or incompetent public servants should be made easy and 
sure in whatever way experience shall show to be most expedient in 
any given class of cases. 

One of the fundamental necessities in a representative govern- 
ment such as ours is to make certain that the men to whom the people 
delegate their power shall serve the people by whom they are elected, 
and not the special interests. J believe that every national officer, 
elected or appointed, should be forbidden to perform any service or 
receive any compensation directly or indirectly from interstate corpo- 
rations; and a similar provision could not fail to be useful within 
the states. 

The object of government is the welfare of the people. 
The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly 
so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good 
citizens. Just in proportion as the average man and woman are honest, 
capable of sound judgment and high ideals, active in public affairs — 
but, first of all, sound in their home life, and the father and mother of 
healthy children — just so far and no farther we may count our civili- 
zation a success. We must have — I believe we have already — a 
genuine and permanent moral awakening, without which no wisdom or 
legislation or administration really means anything ; and, on the other 
hand, we must try to secure the social and economic legislation without 
which any improvement due to purely moral agitation is necessarily 
evanescent. What we need is good citizens. Good citizenship means 
progress; and therefore all good citizens should stand for progress, 
and must be progressive. 



CHAPTER XLV 

The Conservation of Natural Resources 

WHAT Conservation means our readers must be well aware, 
for the press has devoted a great amount of attention to it 
in recent months, especially in connection with the Pinchot 
dismissal, the Ballinger trial and the Alaskan coal claims. It is the 
preservation of our great forest, mineral and other natural treasures, 
the prevention of waste and destruction of these resources and their 
control in the interests of all the people, so far as can be done at 
this late day. 

President Roosevelt was the first who fully waked up to this 
necessity, or at least who took the first steps toward its realization, 
when he called a conference of the governors of the states and terri- 
tories at Washington in May, 1908, to consider this important subject. 
As a result a Joint Conservation Commission was form.ed by the 
President and a second conference was held in Washington in Decem- 
ber, 1908. Canada and ]\iexico, and finally the world, were invited to 
join in the movement, and it was everywhere viewed with approval. 

A National Conservation Congress had been called to meet at 
St. Paul, Minnesota, in the first week of September, 1910, at which 
all the leaders in the movement were booked to deliver their views, 
such men as Gififord Pinchot, the late chief forester; James J. Hill, the 
famous railroad magnate; Senator Beveridge, Secretary of Agricul- 
ture Wilson, and various others notable for their interest in the move- 
ment. Chief among those booked for the occasion were President Taft, 
who was to present his view at length on September 5th, and ex- 
President Roosevelt, who was to follow him on the 6th. In the light 
of these shining luminaries that of the lesser stars paled and the nation 
stood eager to hear what its two chief leaders had to say. 

Roosevelt had delivered himself at length on the topic at Denver, 

(414) 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 415 

and had little to add to the views there expressed, but the fact that he 
was to follow Taft at St. Paul gave spice to the present occasion and 
great interest was felt in the coming oration. Of these speeches it 
may here be said that the President dealt with the subject eloquently 
and exhaustively, giving general satisfaction by the advanced char- 
acter of his views and his evident desire to conserve the natural 
resources for the benefit of all the people, to hold them as a great 
national asset of the republic of the United States. With these views 
the ex-President was closely in accord, though his ideas vv^ere far more 
briefly expressed. Aside from interested prospectors and speculators, 
there were few Americans who were not in accord with what these 
two leading orators had to say. 

Before giving the text of Roosevelt's address on this momentous 
occasion, it is advisable here to epitomize the events of the remainder 
of his rapid speech-making journey, in which he traveled 5,500 miles, 
spoke in sixteen states, was greeted by a million or two of people, and 
in the fortnight's round delivered about one hundred addresses, short 
and long. 

At Kansas City he spoke to an audience 20,000 in number; at 
Omaha to a throng of 10,000, who filled every corner of the auditorium, 
as many more vainly seeking entrance. Here he spoke of two great 
feats, the round-the-world cruise of the American battleship fleet and 
the digging of the Panama Canal, which he declared should be forti- 
fied. The notable sentence in his address was his sharp rap at the 
"mere multimillionaire," he saying: 'Tt is the rich man who trusts to 
his riches that I am speaking of ; the multimillionaire whose sole title 
to distinction is the fact that he is a multimillionaire. Such a one is a 
poor citizen and an objectionable American exhibit abroad." 

Sioux City, Iowa, w^as next visited, and here Roosevelt made his 
first allusion to President Taft, complimenting him and his efiforts to 
bring about tariff agreements with foreign countries and to form a 
tarift" commission. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was the next place of 
stop, and from there he made an all day's ride to Fargo, North Dakota. 
It was Sunday and he hoped for a little rest, saying, "Like Weller's 
Thanksgiving turkey, I am old and tough, but there are limits." But 
the people on the route did not think so, and at every station where 



4i6 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

the train stopped for the briefest interval he was forced to shake hands 
with and speak to a throng of admirers. 

It was a labor day oration that he gave at Fargo, one point in it 
being his advocacy of an eight-hour working day. The day at St. 
Paul followed, and on the 7th Milwaukee was reached, where good 
citizenship and morality were his chosen topics. Chicago was reached 
on the 8th, his visit there being made notable by an act that called 
forth widespread commendation. This was his refusal to accept an 
invitation to a club dinner if Senator Lorimer, a member of the club, 
was to be present. Over Lorimer hung the unsavory charge of having 
won his seat in the Senate by bribing the Illinois legislature, Roose- 
velt, an advocate of honesty in politics, felt it his duty to ostracise men 
like this. In the same spirit he subsequently turned a cold shoulder 
to Cox, the partisan boss of Cincinnati. 

Another stopping point in his route was at Columbus, Ohio, the 
scene of a stubborn car strike which had led to outbreaks of violence. 
Here he did not hesitate to denounce in strong language those who had 
broken the laws by resorting to mob rule and rioting. The final 
speech-making point on his route was Pittsburg, where the sea of 
humanity that greeted him was so great that he said: "I have seen 
many extraordinary sights in the past two wrecks, but I have seen 
nothing like this, Pittsburg certainly stands in a class by itself. I 
should say that you have here all the people of Western Pennsylvania 
and then some." 

His speech there \vas in w^arm commendation of the way the Iron 
City had dealt with its grafters. Civic honesty w^as his theme, and he 
spoke in high approval of the fact that Pittsburg was the first to "put 
the wealthy corrupt business man in stripes." "You have sent that 
man, the crooked man, the big business man, to the penitentiary, just as 
you sent the crooked politician to the penitentiary." 

From Pittsburgh the orator took the midnight train for New 
York, and before midday of Sunday, the nth, was safely back in the 
bosom of his family at Oyster Bay, after what was in some respects the 
most remarkable and strenuous experience of his life. 

Returning now to the Conservation Congress at St. Paul, it 
must be said that the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis gave 



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Photo. Amer. Press Asso. 

COLONEL ROOSEVELT IN IOWA WITH SENATOR CUMMINS. 
Speaking from his private car, with Senator Cuinmins beside him, Colonel Roosevelt 
said, in one of his Iowa speeches, "We are against the domination of the public by special 
interests, whether these special interests are political, business or a combination of both." 




Photo. Amcr. Press Asso. 

'•RUTHLESS AGAINST EVERY SPECIES OF CORRUPTION." 
"The main issue is that we stand against bossism, big or little, and in favor of genuine 
popular rule, and above all, that our war is ruthless against everj' species of corruption." 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 417 

Colonel Roosevelt, when he appeared there on the 6th of September, 
a greeting of highly flattering enthusiasm. Forty thousand people 
awaited him on the fair grounds after he left the hall where he had 
spoken to the Conservation Congress, and simply "went wild" when 
he appeared before them. As to making them hear him, that was out 
of the question, except for those favored ones who were close at hand, 
and it kept him busy turning from one part of the crowd to another 
and speaking a few sentences to each. 

In Denver, as already stated, the subject of conservation had 
been treated by Colonel Roosevelt at considerable length, more fully 
than in his subsequent speech at St. Paul. There he defined its prin- 
ciples as three in number. One was that the waste of our natural 
resources must cease. The second was that our natural resources 
must be developed. The third was that our natural resources must 
remain in the ownership and under the control of the central govern- 
ment. We give below that portion of the St, Paul address which deals 
most directly with the subject of conservation. 

THE CONSERVATION PROBLEM. 

"America's reputation for efficiency stands deservedly high 
throughout the world. We are efficient probably to the full limit that 
any nation can attain by the methods hitherto used. There is great 
reason to be proud of our achievements, and yet no reason to believe 
that we cannot excel our past. Through a practically unrestrained 
individualism we have reached a pitch of literally unexampled material 
prosperity ; although the distribution of this prosperity leaves much to 
be desired from the standpoint of justice and fair dealing. 

"But we have not only allowed the individual a free hand, which 
was in the main right, we have also allowed great corporations to act 
as though they were individuals, and to exercise the rights of indi- 
viduals, in addition to using the vast combined power of high organi- 
zation and enormous wealth for their own advantage. This develop- 
ment of corporate action, it is true, is doubtless in large part respon- 
sible for the gigantic development of our natural resources, but it is 
not less responsible for waste, destrucfion and monopoly on an equally 
gigantic scale. 



4i8 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

"The method of reckless and uncontrolled private use and waste 
has done for us all the good it ever can, and it is time to put an end to 
it before it does all the evil it easily may. We have passed the time 
when needless waste and destruction and arrogant monopoly are any 
longer permissible. Henceforth we must seek national efficiency by a 
new and a better way, by the way of the orderly development and use, 
coupled with the preservation of our national resources, by making 
the most of what we have for the benefit of all of us, instead of leaving 
the sources of material prosperity open to indiscriminate exploitation. 
These are some of the reasons why it is wise that we should abandon 
the old point of view and why conservation has become a patriotic duty. 

NATIONAL FORESTS. 

'The people of the United States believe in the complete and 
rounded development of inland waterways for all the useful purposes 
they can be made to serve. They believe also in forest protection and 
forest extension. The fight for our national forests in the West has 
been won. After a campaign in which the women of Minnesota did 
work which should secure to them the perpetual gratitude of their 
State, Minnesota won her national forest, and will keep it; but the 
fight to create the Southern Appalachian and White Mountain forests 
in the East is not yet over. The bill has passed the House and will 
come before the Senate for a vote next February. The people of the 
United States, regardless of party or section, should stand solidly 
behind it, likewise. 

"If any proof were needed that forest protection is a national duty 
the recent destruction of forests in the West by fire would supply it. 
Even with the aid of the army, added to that of the forest service, the 
loss has been severe. Without either it would have been vastly greater. 

"But the forest service does more than protect the national forests 
against fire. It makes them practically and increasingly useful as well. 
During the last year for which I have the figures the national forests 
were used by 22,000 cattlemen with their herds, 5,000 sheepmen with 
their flocks," 5,000 timbermen with their crews and 45,000 miners. 
More than 34,000 settlers had the free use of wood. The total resident 
population of the national forests is about a quarter of a million, which 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 419 

is larger than the population of certain states. More than 700,000 
acres of agricuUiiral land have been patented or listed for patent within 
the forests, and the reports of the forest officers show that more than 
400,000 people a year use the forests for recreation, camping, hunting, 
fishing and similar purposes. All this is done, of course, without injury 
to the timber, which has a value of at least a thousand million dollars. 
"Moreover, the national forests protect the water supply of a 
thousand cities and towns, about 800 irrigation projects, and more 
than 300 power projects, not counting the use of water for these and 
other purposes by individual settlers. I think that hereafter we may 
safely disregard any statements that the national forests are withdrawn 
from settlement and use. 

CONSERVATION. 

"One of the most important meetings in our recent history was 
that of the Governors in the White House, in May, 1908, to consider 
the conservation question. By the advice of the Governors the meet- 
ing was followed by the appointment of a National Conservation Com- 
mission. The meeting of the Governors directed the attention of the 
country to conservation as nothing else could have done, while the 
work of the commission gave the movement definiteness and supplied 
it with a practical programme. But at the moment when the commis- 
sion was ready to begin the campaign for putting its programme into 
efifect an amendment to the sundry civil service bill was introduced 
by a Congressman from Minnesota, wnth the purpose of putting a stop 
to the work so admirably begun. Congress passed the amendment. 
Its object was to put an end to the work of a number of commissions, 
w^hich had been appointed by the President, and whose contribution to 
the public welfare had been simply incalculable. Among these were 
the commission for reorganizing the business methods of the govern- 
ment, the Public Lands Commission, the Country Life Commission 
and the National Conservation Conmiission itself. When I signed the 
sundry civil service bill containing this amendment I transmitted with 
it as my last official act a memorandum declaring that the amendment 
was void, because it was an unconstitutional interference with the 
rig-hts of the Executive, and that if T were to remain President I would 
pav it no attention whatever. 



420 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

"The National Conservation Commission thereupon became 
dorniant. The suspension of its work came at a most unfortunate 
time, and there was serious danger that the progress ah'eady made 
would be lost. At this critical moment the National Conservation 
Association was organized. It took up the work which otherwise 
would not have been done, and it exercised a most useful influence in 
preventing bad legislation, in securing the introduction of better con- 
servation measures at the past session of Congress, and in promoting 
the passage of wise laws. It deserves the confidence and support of 
every citizen interested in the wise development and preservation of 
our natural resources, and in preventing them from passing into the 
hands of uncontrolled monopolies. It joins with the National Conser- 
vation Congress in holding this meeting. I am here by the joint invi- 
tation of both. 

OTHER NATIONS JOIN. 

"When the Government of the United States awoke to the idea 
of conservation and saw that it was good, it lost no time in com- 
municating the advantages of the new point of view to its immediate 
neighbors among the nations. A North American Conservation Con- 
ference was held in Washington, and the co-operation of Canada and 
Mexico in the great problem of developing the resources of the conti- 
nent for the benefit of its people was asked and promised. The nations 
upon our northern and southern boundaries wisely realized that their 
opportunity to conserve the natural resources was better than ours, 
because with them destruction and monopolization had not gone so far 
as they had with us. So it is with the republics of Central and South 
America. Obviously, they are on the verge of a period of great 
material progress. The development of their natural resources — their 
forests, their mines, their water and their soils — will create enormous 
wealth. It is to the mutual interest of the United States and our sister 
American republics that this developm.ent should be wisely done. 

FEDERAL CONTROL. 

"But while we of the United States are anxious, as I believe we are 
able, to be of assistance to others, there are problems of our own which 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 421 

we must not overlook. One of the most important conservation ques- 
tions of the moment relates to the control of water power monopoly in 
the public interest There is apparent to the judicious observer a 
distinct tendency on the part of our opponents to cloud the issue by 
raising- the question of state as against federal jurisdiction. We are 
ready to meet that issue if it is forced upon us. But there is no hope 
for the plain people in such conflicts of jurisdictions. The essential 
question is not one of hair-splitting legal technicalities. It is simply 
this : Who can best regulate the special interests for the public good ? 
Most of the predatory corporations are interstate or have interstate 
affiliations. Therefore, they are largely out of reach of effective state 
control, and fall of necessity within the federal jurisdiction. One of the 
prime objects of those among them that are grasping and greedy is to 
avoid any effective control either by state or nation, and they advocate 
at this time state control simply because they believe it to be the least 
effective. In the great fight of the people to drive the special interests 
from the dominion of our government the nation is stronger and its 
jurisdiction is more effective than that of any state. The most effective 
weapon against these great corporations, most of which are financial 
and owned on the Atlantic coast, will be federal laws and the federal 
executive. That is why I so strongly oppose the demand to turn these 
matters over to the states. It is fundamentally a demand against the 
interest of the plain people, of the people of small means, against the 
interest of our children and our children's children ; and it is primarily 
in the interest of the great corporations which desire to escape all 
government control. 

"One of the difficulties in putting into practice the conservation 
idea is that the field to which it applies is constantly growing in the 
public mind. It has been no slight task to bring before 90,000,000 
people a great conception like that of conservation, and convince them 
that it is right. This much we have accomplished. But there remains 
much to be cleared up and many misunderstandings to be removed. 
These misunderstandings are due, in part, at least to direct misrepre- 
sentation by the men to whose interest it is that conservation should 
not prosper. For example, we find it constantly said by men who 
should know better that temporary withdrawals, such as the with- 



42 2 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 

drawals of coal lands, will permanently check development. Yet the 
fact is that these withdrawals have no purpose except to prevent the 
coal lands from passing into private ownership until Congress can 
pass laws to open them to development under conditions just alike to 
the public and to the men who will do the developing. If there is delay, 
the responsibility for it rests, not on the men who made the with- 
drawals to protect the public interest, but on those who prevent Con- 
gress from passing wise legislation, and so putting an end to the need 
for withdrawals. 

"Abuses committed in the name of a just cause are familiar to all 
of us. Many unwise things are done and many unwise measures are 
advocated in the name of conservation, either through ignorance or by 
those whose interest lies not in promoting the movement but in retard- 
ing it. For example, to stop water-power development by needless 
refusal to issue permits for water power or private irrigation works on 
the public lands inevitably leads many men, friendly to conservation 
and believers in its general principles, to assume that its practical 
application is necessarily a check upon progress. Nothing could be 
more mistaken. The idea, widely circulated of late, that conservation 
means locking up the natural resources for the exclusive use of later 
generations, is wholly mistaken. Our purpose is to make full use of 
these resources, but to consider our sons and daughters as well as 
ourselves ; just as a farmer uses his farm in ways to preserve its future 
usefulness. Conservation is the road to national efficiency, and it 
stands for ample and wise development. 

"But in spite of these difficulties, most of which are doubtless 
inevitable in any movement of this kind, conservation has made mar- 
velous progress. I have been astounded and delighted on my return 
from abroad at the progress made while T was away. We have a right 
to congratulate ourselves on this marvelous progress ; but there is no 
reason for believing that the fight is won. In the beginning the special 
interests, who are our chief opponents in the conservation fight, paid 
little heed to the movement, because they neither understood it nor 
saw that if it won they must lose. But with the proQ^ress of conserva- 
tion in the minds of our people the fight is gettins: sharper. The 
nearer we approach to victory the bitterer the opposition that we must 



THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 423 

meet and the greater the need for caution and watchfulness. Open 
opposition we can overcome, but I warn you especially against the men 
who come to congresses such as this, ostensibly as disinterested citizens, 
but actually as the paid agents of the special interests. I heartily 
approve the attitude of any corporation, interested in the deliberations 
of a meeting such as this, which comes hither to advocate, by its openly 
accredited agents, views which it believes the meeting should have in 
mind. But I condemn wnth equal readiness the appearance of a cor- 
porate agent before any convention who does not declare himself 
frankly as such. 

"This congress is a direct appeal to the patriotism of our whole 
people. The nation wisely looks to such gatherings for counsel and 
leadership. Let that leadership be sound, definite, practical and on the 
side of all the people. It would be no small misfortune if a meeting 
such as this should ever fall into the hands of the open enemies or false 
friends of the great movement which it represents, 

OUR NATIONAL DUTY. 

'Tt is our duty and our desire to make this land of ours a better 
home for the race, but our duty does not stop there. We must also 
work for a better nation to live in this better land. The development 
and conservation of our national character and our free institutions 
must go hand in hand with the development and conservation of our 
natural resources, which the Governors' conference so well called the 
foundations of our prosperity. Whatever progress we may make as a 
nation, whatever wealth we may accumulate, however far we may push 
mechanical development and production, we shall never reach a point 
where our welfare can depend in the last analysis on anything but 
honesty, courage, loyalty and good citizenship. The homely virtues 
are the lasting virtues, and the road which leads to them is the road 
to genuine and lasting: success. 

"What this country needs is what every free country nmst set 
before it as the great goal toward which it works — an equal oppor- 
tunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for every one of its 
citizens. To achieve this end we must put a stop to the improper 




424 THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 



political dominion, no less than to the improper economic dominion, of 
the great special interests. This country, its natural resources, its 
natural advantages, its opportunities and its institutions, belong to all 
its citizens. They cannot be enjoyed fully and freely under any gov- 
ernment in which the special interests as such have a voice. The 
supreme political task of our day, the indispensable condition of national 
efficiency and national welfare is to drive the special interests out of 
our public life." 



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